TOD 7/26: REX - love or hate him?

[Freddie's Dead]

My tag line says it all. Tell me again how Rex is a good coach when you see Tyrod huddling up in the 2-minute drill.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

that & $3 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

 

I was uneasy with the hire & Rex has done nothing to prove that my concerns were misplaced.

 

Again, given the litany of coaches we've had here since Marv, he's an upgrade at least in my opinion.

[Chandler#81]

For me this season will make the decision.

Yes.

 

He gets a semi-pass from me for last year, due to terrible team fortune with injuries forcing a depleted roster in most games. What'd we have, 21 different players on the roster from the Final 53 at the start of the season? That in itself causes lots of penalties. The team played recklessly and paid for it. Game officials came to expect it which compounded the problem, IMO. We now have the largest coaching staff ever, so disciplined play must be the mantra.

I'm not giving him a semi-pass again, should we find a talent depleted team by late season.

[eball]

I roll my eyes at "media Rex" but I think he's smarter than most fans (and media) give him credit for.

 

People forget how many question marks and unknowns the Bills had going into last season. It's easy to say "he screwed up the defense" but the Pegulas are as much to blame for that -- they hired a defensive coach that would force Schwartz and his "Mario-friendly" scheme out the door. Rex's system is complicated and needs complete buy-in; I do give him a one-year pass to get it implemented.

 

On offense, the Bills were a complete unknown...no QB, new OC, questions on the OL, you name it.

 

As for game management, Rex was not awful. He had some stumbles early but I thought the last half of the season was managed well.

 

Through all of this the Bills managed an 8-8 record. It was neither a good nor terrible head coaching job.

 

I have zero tolerance for any additional learning curve for Rex in Buffalo this season. He's been a HC for 5+ years and while I gave him the one-year pass to get his "culture" in place it's put up or shut up time.

 

If the Bills perform as I believe they will it's going to be a lot of fun to have Rex as our coach. If they falter, he won't be around for long.

Edited July 26, 2016 by eball

[Blokestradamus]

Rex has the kind of personality that makes me want to punch him. Repeatedly. Wouldn't hire the bloke to run my football team if it was my money.

 

What Rex has going for him is defensive success. I like his scheme, it's a little old-fashioned in ways but it's my type of football. I can forget my dislike of the man if he gives me a winning team.

 

If he provides a losing season in 2016, he will be the Bugs Bunny to my Elmer Fudd.

[HamSandwhich]

The jury is still out for me. I like his bravado, though sometimes I think he takes it too far. Lets hope he can walk the walk this year.

[qwksilver]

Be a better game day manager, have the team be more disciplined. With those 2 adjustments I could live with him as our couch for a bit longer. Without those two adjustments it could be a long season (his last).

Edited July 26, 2016 by qwksilver

[Dragonborn10]

 

Let's just pick other arbitrary measures of judgement while we're at it. How many teams with a new HC, OC, DC, and starting QB that was in 3-way tryouts for the job in camp and have made the playoffs in their first season? Who the hell knows? Hey, here's a stat you'll like. If you add the collective record of every head coach in the playoffs last year in their first season with their team, you would get exactly 97-95. Out of 12, only 4 had a record above 0.500 in their first year with their new team. Love Rex or hate him? Neither. To assume that a brand new system can be installed in a year with a QB that's never started, and players that don't fit schemes you're trying to run is just plain stupid. So, let's just say that they end up 8-8 again this year. Should the team completely reboot? I don't think so.

Well said. The counter argument is they didn't need to install a whole new defense. They just needed the offense to play better. Rex brought in Roman and TT and the offense got better. He should have swallowed his pride and added some of his defensive principles to what Schwartz was already doing instead of a full scale change. He either could not teach the defense well enough or the players were too stupid to figure it out. Losing A. Williams was a serious blow. Thinking Duke Williams belonged on the field was bad judgement.

I neither love or hate. In two years the D-line went from best in the NFL to having a gaping hole at DE and no place to play Kyle. But oddly the defense will not decide Rex's fate. It is all about TT. If TT can climb into the near elite - top 10 status (Rivers, Roethlisberger, Romo, Eli) Rex will stay and get to draft as many defenders as he wants next year.

[jimmy10]

I've always liked Rex, even when he was with the Jest.

 

But, I recognize things may not work out. This season will be telling.

[Canadian Bills Fan]

I like a coach who wins.

 

Rex has not been able to do that so far.

 

We will see how this season goes.

 

 

 

CBF

[dpberr]

How about annoyed?

 

I think he talks too much. I think fans and players alike would all be thinking about last season differently if he managed expectations instead of creating them.

 

I wasn't a fan of his hiring by the Bills. I think being fired by the Jets and instantly hired by the Bills provided no time for him to reflect and learn from what went wrong with the Jets. I think that's handicapping him now.

 

He would have been a better coach for any team in the NFL with a year off.

[hondo in seattle]

I liked Rex a lot more after reading Collision Low Crossers.

 

I liked him a lot less after seeing what he did with our D last season.

 

I suspect he's an average football coach with the bravado of a megalomaniac. The bravado doesn't bother me - the mediocrity does.

 

But there's enough good stuff in his resume - his years as DC with Baltimore, his defensive accomplishments his first couple years with the Jets - that I remain open-minded.

[Luxy312]

Well said. The counter argument is they didn't need to install a whole new defense. They just needed the offense to play better. Rex brought in Roman and TT and the offense got better. He should have swallowed his pride and added some of his defensive principles to what Schwartz was already doing instead of a full scale change. He either could not teach the defense well enough or the players were too stupid to figure it out. Losing A. Williams was a serious blow. Thinking Duke Williams belonged on the field was bad judgement.

I neither love or hate. In two years the D-line went from best in the NFL to having a gaping hole at DE and no place to play Kyle. But oddly the defense will not decide Rex's fate. It is all about TT. If TT can climb into the near elite - top 10 status (Rivers, Roethlisberger, Romo, Eli) Rex will stay and get to draft as many defenders as he wants next year.

 

A couple of points. First I agree with you on not needing to install a new defense. I would have loved to have seen Schwartz stay and just run the system they were running before. In terms of "adding some of his principles" to what Schwartz was doing, that's not really possible. Let's start with a primer on what Schwartz's system was and was not. Schwartz base package was a 4-3. 4 down linemen rush the passer on most downs. Schwartz mostly used Nickel on clear passing downs, with just those same 4 down linemen getting after quarterbacks. In Ryan's 3-4, he's running a ton of Dime, Nickel and Quarter packages. The key for his defense is disguising who's going after the quarterback. He tried some hybrid schemes at the beginning of the season and they just didn't work. I also agree with you 100% on Aaron Williams for that exact reason. Rex's schemes absolutely require good CB's and Safeties to be effective. The safety play last year was pretty terrible. At this point in his career, I'm not too worried about Kyle Williams. He only played 6 games last season and has been on the slow road to recovery. He's showing his age and wear and tear at this point.

[Formerly Allan in MD]

We could do much better. As far as I'm concerned, he's like a rookie fighting to make an impression, a positive one for a change.

[section122]

I hope JohnC responds to this topic.

 

I also wonder when is the last time someone was a HC for 5 straight non-winning seasons, then went on to win a Superbowl.

Did some work for this....

 

Weeb Ewbanks had .500 or worse seasons 7 of 8 years (including 6 straight) before winning SB III

Tom Landry had a .500 or worse record his first 5 years as a coach

 

That is it for 5 years in a row. However a surprising amount of SB winning coaches had 3 straight losing seasons, 4 of 5 losing seasons, and none were able to recreate the magic and win a sb with a different team.

 

I like that Rex has made us a story again and brought the Bills back to relevance. He has made being a Bills fan fun. He does have some warts as a coach. The Mario debacle falls on his shoulders for not benching him, the KC replay management was for lack of a better word pathetic, and the this is our super bowl before the 1st pats game were a bit much. I enjoy him as the coach and hope he does better but I don't put him in the same league as a Bill Belichick as a coach (very few that I do) but he is a better than average coach and one I believe the Bills can win with.

[Best Player Available]

For some reason. It's easier today to picture,The Rex & Rob football hour presented by papa Johns.

Than a parade down Main street with Rex hoisting the Lombardi................

[8-8 Forever?]

Jeff Fisher had 5 non-winning seasons and then lost the Super Bowl...

I think he's a good coach. Give him a good QB and he can take a team to the playoffs.

 

Last year was Tyrod's first year and the defense didn't buy in. He won't be able to use that excuse next year. However, let's stick with a coach for a change. I'm tired of changing coaches every 2 or 3 years.

 

Stick with a philosophy and build a winner around that.

Agreed. Posters on this board seem to think changing coaches every 2 or 3 years is something other than a absolute guarantee of ongoing failure. Since there isn't any practice time anymore (thanks CBA) teams with new coaching staffs need to invest at least 2-3 years in a new staff to see if the players can win with them. Is what it is. Schemes are complex, especially the exotic stuff Roman and Rex run. Lets put it this way, if Pegs dumps Rex after this year, he better get some plain vanilla scheme guys ; i can't take the 3 year learning curves for new coaching schemes with rotating set of players...players have the power of guaranteed contracts- they can just not buy in initially (see; Mario W.) long term stability in the coaching staff means a lot in today's NFL.

Edited July 26, 2016 by 8and8-->NoMore

[Alphadawg7]

A year ago the national press and WNY were having a love affair with Rex. Most believed his bravado in saying the Bills were going to make the playoffs. What do you think of Rex now? What if the Bills miss the playoffs this year, should Rex be run out of town?

 

Great question: My answer, love him until proven otherwise.

 

He has proven he can take teams far into the playoffs, even ones with a bad QB. Many of the people who scrutinize his record the last 5 years GREATLY overlook major contributing factors:

 

1. In NY, he had one of the worst GM performances the last several years I have ever seen. They continued to degrade the roster in critical areas while simultaneously not improving what were the previous weak spots. The overall talent on the team continuously degraded while its greatest weakness (QB and offensive playmakers) didn't improve and actually got worse as well. Sanchez never progressed much, they didn't find a suitable replacement, and they were mostly devoid of any major talent at the skill positions on the offense as well. During that time, the thing that carried them was the defense yet they lost some talent and didn't really do a lot to replace it while he was there. Going from Revis to a high draft pick rookie who didn't pan out for instance...drafting bust QB's and WR's, signing marginal to bad FA's, etc etc was a lot to over come. So to place all the blame on him is unfair when everyone knows how bad the GM was and that he and Rex did not agree on many of the GMs decisions. People WRONGFULLY want to point to look at the Jets last year compared to under Rex, but they were not even close to the same team. They added a lot of talent that offseason, including one of the best WR's in football and Fitz was a big upgrade to the awful QB that is Geno Smith.

 

2. First season in Buffalo: While many want to just blame all of last year on Rex, the truth is that there were some major challenges outside his control that SIGNIFICANTLY impacted this team last year. The biggest was the injuries. I don't want to hear this gibberish that all teams have injuries and what not. Yes, all teams deal with injuries, but not all teams have the same injury situation. Last year, we lost ALL...I repeat...ALL of our offensive playmakers at various times through the year at WR, TE, and RB. Not only did we lose ALL of our playmakers, we lost many of their backups for long stretches, and some for the season. We also lost our starting QB for multiple games and also saw the same starting QB play hurt for many other games. In addition, we lost key offensive lineman for several games as well. On top of the offensive injuries, we lost critical defensive players and leaders to injury as well for parts or all of the season. Teams who have to deal with the kid of injuries we dealt with last year don't win many games, and we actually still won 8 and had a shot at the playoffs still late in the year.

 

In addition, we had a first year QB who didn't get many training camp reps after being in a 3 way battle and starting 3rd on the depth chart. Taylor faced a lot of adversity playing through his first season as a starter, learning a new system, having no time to build chemistry in the offseason, and playing hurt most the year. And all of this while the entire roster was learning a new defense (3rd in 3 years) and a new offense.

 

And lets not forget guys like Mario dogging it out there most weeks because he wanted a different role rather than leading by example and buying into the system.

 

3. Overall, Rex didn't do everthing perfect last year by any means, but no coaches do. Tomlin is regarded as a top coach and I watch him make bone head calls every season. Winning masks that...and 8-8 doesn't mask those mistakes. However, when you factor our injury situation last year along with the fact the whole team was learning new systems on Off, Def, and ST along with the strength of our division and schedule...going 8-8 was pretty impressive. Look at what happened to teams like Balt, Indy, and Dallas who were all billed as SB contenders. They had bad luck with injuries, yet our injury situation was worse than theirs and yet we had the better season for the most part despite a tougher division and schedule. I mean we not only lost critical starters, be lost their backups, and in some cases the backups to the backups. We were starting guys straight off the waiver wire just to be able to field a team along with rookies a key positions.

 

Our injury situation was one of the most severe I have seen for any team ever last year, and yet we still went 8-8. So you have to give some credit to Rex for getting the team ready to play each week and to our GM for making this team deeper and finding great values on the street during both the offseason and regular season. So for me, going 8-8 last year was impressive considering all of that and his report card is still incomplete because of it. The reason I say incomplete because there are no guarantees we win more games with less injuries, but it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to identify the odds are substantially greater with a healthier team.

 

Im sure I will get the standard "but our defense regressed" as a rebuttal...but more goes into that than just Rex, so to assign full blame to him isn't fair. More importantly, people look at sack and INT stats as the end all be all, but the reality was the previous 2 seasons before Rex our D wasn't that good...yes it compiled stats, but it frequently didn't hold up and get stops when we needed it too. How "good" our D was those previous 2 years is very over exaggerated in the lore of this message board. We will see how the D rebounds this year with some of the bad apples gone and Rex openly discussing learning from what didn't work last year and adjusting this year.

Edited July 26, 2016 by Alphadawg7

[Kemp2Warlick]

[Chilly]

I give him an incomplete so far. His moves on offense, hiring Roman and pushing for Tyrod, have played huge dividends. Best offense we've seen in forever.

 

The reason why he's an incomplete is because the defense sucked last year, and he mishandled a defensive transition that people in the know said would take a good year anyway. So while he screwed up, I'm planning on giving him two years to get his scheme in order.

 

As far as Rex the person goes, he seems like he would be a super fun coach to play for and I feel like we needed someone with his personality to fire everyone up after Marrone.