Bills fire OL Coach Juan Castillo

[MrEpsYtown]

21 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Fair.

 

OK so while I got your and Bandit's attention.  At the beginning of that play, there's obviously some kind of signal just before the snap.

Zay goes in motion crossing L to R, taking his man with him.  Allen raises both hands to his helmet. elbows sticking out, and looks at DiMarco.  DiMarco turns to look at Shady and makes the same gesture.  Best guess what that is signal for?

 

 

Well, Josh got some "immediate feedback" from the Phins for his decision

 

Hapless I think that was just crap audible by our young quarterback. He put himself in that position in my opinion. I think he is clearly changing the play, but he didn't account for Baker. All the lineman are supposed to block the gap to their left, and DiMarco is supposed to come from the other side on the split zone, chip 90 Charles Harris and check down into the flat. That guy is usually wide open. 

 

Allen should have simply ran the split zone left,  Shady would have cut it back and it would have been a massive gash becuase there is no linebacker support there for the cut back. 

 

I put this one on our young quarterback. 

Edited January 3, 2019 by MrEpsYtown

[LSHMEAB]

22 minutes ago, MrEpsYtown said:

 

Hapless I think that was just crap audible by our young quarterback. He put himself in that position in my opinion. I think he is clearly changing the play, but he didn't account for Baker. All the lineman are supposed to block the gap to their left, and DiMarco is supposed to come from the other side on the split zone, chip 90 Charles Harris and check down into the flat. That guy is usually wide open. 

 

Allen should have simply ran the split zone left,  Shady would have cut it back and it would have been a massive gash becuase there is no linebacker support there for the cut back. 

 

I put this one on our young quarterback. 

I remember Beuerlein commenting that Allen called an audible on that particular play. 

[BillsFan4]

The airing of grievances.... (for all the Seinfeld fans)

 

Quote

We lost Richie, we lost Eric, we lost Seantrel, we lost Cordy,” Castillo said. “I mean, you go right down the line, we lost (several) guys that really were not replaced, except they added (guard) Wyatt (Teller), a fifth-rounder. And he ended up playing and played well there at the end. Really, he was a kid that was a defensive player that had to be developed. (Otherwise) he would have went earlier. And I think he did get developed.”

 

Quote

 

“The thing about it, to me, to begin with, a lot of people didn't think he could play left tackle," Castillo said, referring to the view of Dawkins when the Bills drafted him in the second round out of Temple. “So here's a kid that you're saying he regressed. He didn't play like a Pro Bowler, but he played like a solid left tackle. He doesn't get beat very much at pass pro. So did he regress? No.

 

Quote

 

“How many games did Dion have like that? He didn't have games like that,” Castillo said. “You know, the young kid (quarterback Josh Allen) holds the ball, too. He goes three or four hitches back there. (Dawkins) got beat every once in awhile. Most guys get beat, especially a second-year guy. Go back and read up on Dion. How many people thought he could play left tackle? And now, all of a sudden, you want him to be a Pro Bowler the second year? I don't think so.

 

 

[Bangarang]

He sounds salty as hell

[Aussie Joe]

I’m loving this...

 

It’s hard to argue with some of his comments...

 

Im not regretting then moving on from him but I’m a believer with the buck stopping at the top..

 

More assets could have been deployed last year to upgrade the line..

 

 

 

 

[Coach Tuesday]

Zero self-accountability based on that interview.  I can only imagine the sass he gave Daboll on a weekly basis.  Good firing, good riddance.

[Gugny]

I'm hurt that this took so long.

 

At least we now know that it was all Beane's and Allen's fault.  

 

Regardless, none of it was Castillo's fault ..... said no Juan, ever.

[JM57]

5 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

The airing of grievances.... (for all the Seinfeld fans)

 

 

 

 

LOL he sounds like the posters in this thread. "BUT I LOST GUYS"

[billsintaiwan]

That article almost made me feel sorry for him. Almost.

[GG]

7 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

The airing of grievances.... (for all the Seinfeld fans)

 

 

Typical for Castillo's scheme's, he's a week too late for the realization.  For someone claiming not to be bitter, he surely came off like a soured lemon

[GG]

16 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

C'mon man.  There is always more than one way to skin a muskrat.

 

I only commented because you used Paradis as the specific example.  Reality is that he was not truly available last year, and Beane's version of the other way to skin that rodent was Bodine.

 

Out of the available list here, who was a better realistic option than Bodine?

16 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

I believe he started the 2012 season on the bench. 

 

Even still thats 8 games missed over 5 years prior to 2017 . It's football. Injuries are going to happen. 

 

If you're the GM, do you look at 8 games missed in his first 5 seasons or 18 games missed in his most recent 3 seasons?

[MrEpsYtown]

8 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

The airing of grievances.... (for all the Seinfeld fans)

 

 

 

 

 

That's some really open and honest stuff. Wow, he even kind of calls out Riley Reiff. I thought his comments on Dion Dawkins are actually on point though. I actually think Dawkins has been pretty solid. Watch other teams' left tackles...Dawkins is not a guard. 

[GG]

3 minutes ago, ScottLaw said:

He had a nagging foot injury that required surgery.

 

He played in 13 of 16 games this past year.

 

If I am GM I don't rush to trade a top tier LT when healthy. I would've rather traded a future unknown draft pick than an established very good NFL tackle on a team with several offensive line holes. But that's just me.? 

 

These guys felt they needed to rebuild pretty much the entire roster. Even riding themselves of good NFL players. They still haven't done a sufficient job replacing those players. 

 

 

 

The rebuild strategy is getting much clearer now two seasons in.  They were looking at the roster composition in 2019, and put a premium on players who can best fit the culture, scheme and long term budget.  The players they got rid of were talented, but clearly didn't fit the long term plans, and they certainly don't look too promising for their new teams' futures.  The players that formed that core could still barely eke out a 7-9 season. 

 

McBeane also have the best seat in the house to assess the players' health, and so far, they've been right in their prognosis of Glenn, Dareus & Watkins. 

 

You and other critics expect them to replace the departed players in one season, which is laughable.   McBeane have had their share of misses on offense, and with Pegula's blessing are willing to pay high contracts in the short term to rebuild the roster.  The rebuild will continue this year, and there's very little argument that this is the first time in over 20 years that there appears to be a cohesive plan for the rebuild.   They finally tore off the old model of building a team and waiting for the QB to fall into their lap.   

 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

 

This guy is delusional.

 

“And you've got a whole new offense, and a complicated offense, not an easy offense," [might be true] Castillo said of the Bills' attack under coordinator Brian Daboll. "And here's the kicker: (He's a solid tackle) not on a team that's running the ball. This is on a team that was averaging, what? Forty throws a game or something? People are not playing us for the run. They're rushing. So did he regress? I don't think so. That kid's going to be a Pro Bowl player, but you can't be a Pro Bowl player your second year.” 

 

It's a matter of record that the Bills were #6 in the NFL in rush attempts, and #28 in pass attempts.

It's also a matter of record that since Allen returned to the lineup, the Bills have averaged 30 pass attempts per game.  We threw >40 times once - against the Pats.

 

Now the Bills aren't a team that's running the ball well - but where does the buck stop for that, Juan Castillo?  We're trying to run the ball -since the bye, averaging 31 rush attempts per game.  Now I grant, a number of those rush attempts belong to the QB, but if you take out JA's rush attempts on the season, we slot into 25th (without correcting other rush attempts for QB), which since we're 28th on pass attempts, still means we're a bit rush heavy.

 

There's not any perception there, this is all just facts.  This guy thinks we're passing 10x per game more than we are, and thinks we're not trying to run the ball, when actually for an NFL offense on average we're a little bit rush-heavy.

 

And there's this: “You know, the young kid (quarterback Josh Allen) holds the ball, too. He goes three or four hitches back there." Sometimes Allen did hold the ball, sometimes he flushed out and ran too soon, often he threw before the play had fully developed because, pressure. 

 

Now I grant that he had a huge point about player personnel.  But he doesn't mention signing Bodine, who started at center most of the year.  And the time to bang the desk and say "look, my OL talent is as shallow as a kiddie pool, you have got to get me more to work with unless you want your shiny new rookie to get flattened like a toon (from Roger Rabbit)" is last Spring, before FA - preferably along with some lobbying about who in FA he wanted.  If he didn't have a relationship with McDermott that would let him say that, or the ability to make his case, after coaching with the guy 11 years, he's frankly not the right guy for the job.

 

If he's saying all that to Carucci, I can only imagine what he said and how he came across to Daboll.  It's everyone's fault but Castillos - the rookie QB, the playbook, the playcalling, the GM. 

 

Daboll is accustomed to coaching with a team that's starting an UDFA at center along with a 7th, 3rd, 4th and 5th round pick.  Which may, actually, account for why the Bills thought what they'd done on OL was enough.  That's where communication is key: "I know on the professional team you're most familiar with, the OL has been effective with late-round guys, but the QB is the Master at reading the D and getting the ball out quickly.  I don't care who the rookie QB is gonna be, he's gonna need more time to read the field and that means I need more talent."  But if this guy can't even track his own team's R/P stats,

 

"He was drawn to the youthful enthusiasm of first-time head coach Sean McDermott, with whom he had worked with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2010. "  Translation: I thought I was McDermott's BFF and I didn't have to build a relationship with the OC or satisfy him as my boss.

 

Bye Felicia.

[GG]

8 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

This guy is delusional.

...

 

If he's saying all that to Carucci, I can only imagine what he said and how he came across to Daboll.  It's everyone's fault but Castillos - the rookie QB, the playbook, the playcalling, the GM.  "He was drawn to the youthful enthusiasm of first-time head coach Sean McDermott, with whom he had worked with the Philadelphia Eagles from 1999 to 2010. "  Translation: I thought I was McDermott's BFF and I didn't have to build a relationship with the OC or satisfy him as my boss.

 

Bye Felicia.

 

That's basically how he came across.   

 

Piecing together bits of stories about Castillo is that he probably is a very good teacher of technique who can develop players, but is an awful coach to put in an effective blocking scheme for the line that works with the OC's design.   In a perfect world, he'd be demoted to Asst OL coach who works with players individually, and stays away from game designs.

[TheBeaneBandit]

17 minutes ago, GG said:

 

That's basically how he came across.   

 

Piecing together bits of stories about Castillo is that he probably is a very good teacher of technique who can develop players, but is an awful coach to put in an effective blocking scheme for the line that works with the OC's design.   In a perfect world, he'd be demoted to Asst OL coach who works with players individually, and stays away from game designs.

Couldn't agree more and thats pretty much exactly what I thought of him.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

56 minutes ago, GG said:

 

I only commented because you used Paradis as the specific example.  Reality is that he was not truly available last year, and Beane's version of the other way to skin that rodent was Bodine.

 

Out of the available list here, who was a better realistic option than Bodine?

 

If you're the GM, do you look at 8 games missed in his first 5 seasons or 18 games missed in his most recent 3 seasons?

 

I had two specific examples, including the salary the other example signed for: Pouncey, who started 16 games effectively for the playoff-bound LAC this year.

Paradis was also potentially available, albeit at a cost of a high pick and "make it worth my while".  As far as the rest of that list, both Richburg and Jensen are better centers than Bodine.  Richburg is scary because of the concussion that knocked him out for a season.  The 49'ers gave him a 5 year contract at a rate we could have managed (barely - $9.2M last season), but the length is scary to me with the concussion issues.  Jensen received one of those "structured so his original team can't match it" deals and we may not have been able to do that.  That's the reason I honed in on Pouncey and Paradis as targets.

 

We could have handled the draft-trade-up situation in other ways to make that pick available and to keep Glenn.  Bottom line: Beane chose to prioritize maintaining this year's slate of draft picks over maintaining/upgrading our OL.

 

As far as Glenn, the GM has to look at the reason games have been missed. OLmen do get hurt, not just play a numbers game.  Glenn had a leg injury last season that required off-season surgery.  He's started 13 of 16 games.   That's hardly an "injury-prone unreliable weenie" in the pantheon of pro OLmen.  Example: Peters missed 9 games and the post-season last year.  He played 16 this year.  Earlier in his career he missed an entire season.  He came back and missed very few games the next 4 years. 

 

[Nihilarian]

Reading Castillo's story from his perspective it wasn't his idea to go into the season with the players on the roster. (lack of talent) Losing Glenn, Woods, Incognito did hurt the line play badly and I kinda doubt any O line coach could have done that much better this season. Considering the play calling, the rookie QBs.

 

I had the impression that Castillo had more input into the roster at the start of the season and from what he said, he didn't. Still the guy stinks with his overly complex run blocking schemes. 

The reason the guy is "hurt" by the firing is that he thought he was a fixture in Buffalo with McD and he sees the talent in Josh Allen. 

 

 

On another note in regards to Cordy Glenn. Beane was sitting at the #20 spot and knew he needed to move up into the top ten to draft one of the top four QBs. Trading away Glenn provided a big help in moving up to the #12 spot for a QB. The Bills hit the lottery with Josh Allen and played it perfectly to move up to draft him. Glenn, a guy who hadn't played a full season since 2015 and was injured again for the last three games this season. Clearly the Bills FO didn't think he was worth what he was being paid, like Sammy, Like Marcel. 

 

Shifting gears again... what about Crossman? 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

19 minutes ago, GG said:

That's basically how he came across.   

 

Piecing together bits of stories about Castillo is that he probably is a very good teacher of technique who can develop players, but is an awful coach to put in an effective blocking scheme for the line that works with the OC's design.   In a perfect world, he'd be demoted to Asst OL coach who works with players individually, and stays away from game designs.

 

There's that, but also stories that he's pretty much a "my way or the highway" kind of guy with the veterans - RI made some comments to the effect that Castillo was a coach who insisted on using the techniques he wanted (and actually, retaining Castillo may have been one factor in RI's trajectory - Eric Wood in his Cover1 interview said something that could be interpreted as Ritchie having been graded poorly in run blocking by Castillo and asked to take a pay cut for that reason.)

[Hapless Bills Fan]

13 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

Reading Castillo's story from his perspective it wasn't his idea to go into the season with the players on the roster. (lack of talent) Losing Glenn, Woods, Incognito did hurt the line play badly and I kinda doubt any O line coach could have done that much better this season. Considering the play calling, the rookie QBs.

 

I don't know.  The last couple years of his tenure with the Ravens was marked by apparent confusion about assignments on the line, and a run game that disappeared.  I had the impression that Kubiak told Castillo what to do and really designed the schemes, and when Kubiak left things fell apart - big drop-off to the run game with the player personnel mostly intact.  While it's true that Castillo left Baltimore and was not fired, Harbaugh brought in Greg Roman as run game coordinator in 2017 and Castillo simultaneously announced he was moving to the Bills.  I believe Castillo was probably told "if you have another opportunity, take it" or else read the writing on the wall and called his pal McDermott for a job so he could say "you can't fire me I quit". 

 

I think GG may have it right - he's a good teacher of technique, and a poor designer of protection schemes.  I think he asks his OLmen to make decisions they can't make at game speed, and make physical moves they simply are not able to do, instead of understanding what his guys can and can't do and designing around it.

 

13 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

I had the impression that Castillo had more input into the roster at the start of the season and from what he said, he didn't. Still the guy stinks with his overly complex run blocking schemes. 

 

To the latter, exactly.  To the former - this is where an experienced guy who is homies with the HC needs to "call the shot".  He needs to lay it out there.  I can't do what you're asking me to do without an upgrade.  This is who I need.  But from that interview, I have the strong impression details, facts, and executive function are not his strong suit.

 

13 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

The reason the guy is "hurt" by the firing is that he thought he was a fixture in Buffalo with McD and he sees the talent in Josh Allen. 

 

From the article, one might gain the impression that one factor in his firing was shifting the blame for his poor OL performance to Josh Allen.

 

13 minutes ago, Nihilarian said:

On another note in regards to Cordy Glenn. Beane was sitting at the #20 spot and knew he needed to move up into the top ten to draft one of the top four QBs. Trading away Glenn provided a big help in moving up to the #12 spot for a QB.

 

That's absolutely true, but flip it around.  The reason Beane was able to move up 8 spots in the draft with Glenn, was because a true starting NFL LT simply does not become available very often, so he was valuable as a trade target.  Can we agree that Beane could have achieved the same thing in different ways?  He chose to do it this way, but it was a loss to the team and weakened the line, especially with Wood's retirement.