Historical Fiction: How would drought coaches have fared with Josh Allen?

[Chaos]

In my opinion, there are two primary factors separating the drought era Bills teams from the Allen era Bills teams.  The first and foremost is having Josh Allen as QB.  The second factor which may be equally as important is having the financial resources to compete in free agency. 
 

Among the drought era coaches I think I liked Chan Gaily the best.  I credit him with being the inventor of the Fitzmagic. 
 

It would have been interesting if he and Allen had aligned in time. I am not sure if any of the other drought era coaches would have been anymore interesting than the Allen era coaching  staffs have been. 
 

How would others like to rewrite history?

[SoonerBillsFan]

I thought about this myself.  If Chan had Josh I think the drought would have been shorter.

[NeverOutNick]

2 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

I thought about this myself.  If Chan had Josh I think the drought would have been shorter.

If any coach had Allen the drought would’ve been over. He is the best talent QB the league has ever seen. But I agree Chan was at least creative and would’ve been more successful than the current regime imo 

[oldmanfan]

Gailey would have been a good coach for Josh.  I wonder if Mularkey would have done well with him.

[GunnerBill]

If I imagine Josh (as he is now, so not factoring in a development arc as if he was a rookie in 02) as the Quarterback of each of the teams going back to the start of my fandom in 2002 then I think they break to drought in 2003 with Williams as Head Coach. The D was very good that year. Any sort of offense they are a playoff team. Likewise they'd have made it in 04 (should have anyway) and would have been a potential Superbowl contender. The 05 and 06 teams were not as strong. They lost Pat Williams and London Fletcher and Spikes had the injuries and barely played over those two seasons. I think they'd have been playoff competitive but would have been touch and go to get in. The 2007 team was terrible. How they won 7 games has long since been a mystery to me. I think that was the 3rd worst team of my fandom after 2010 and 2018. I know you look at it and go "they went 7-9, Josh would have got 2 more wins" but that roster sucked I think if they played that schedule 10 times they don't get to 7 wins more than once. 2008 and 09 they probably make it. 2010, no. 2011, possibly. 2012 yes. 2013, no. 2014, yes. 2015 I think they'd have been a Superbowl contender with Josh and any drought coach EXCEPT Rex. 2016 playoffs. 

 

My breakdown of the 15 years of the drought that I watched would be:

 

2 genuine Superbowl contending years (04, 15)

6 likely playoff years (03, 08, 09, 12, 14, 16)

3 playoff contention 50/50 in/out years (05, 06, 11)

4 playoff misses (02, 07, 10, 13)

 

[SoCal Deek]

Why would we want to improve on 7-9? It was our happy place. And remember, regardless of the QB, “it’s really hard to win in the NFL”! 😉

[KingBoots8]

Greggggg: “Thanks, Wade. I’ll take it from here. I’m gonna completely revamp this team and still find a way to lose, but we are gonna hit our opponents $uper hard.”
 

Mularkey: “I’ve got a good QB, and I’ve got a gameplan. There’s absolutely no way a Third-String Steelers team can beat us now, right? RIGHT?!?
 

Jauron: “Hey Josh, we can’t make effective punts if you keep getting us touchdowns. I’m gonna need you to hold off a bit and throw more check downs please.”

 

Chan: “I didn’t play Josh because it wasn’t his turn.”

 

Saint Doug: “I mean, he’s ok, but can we take a second and acknowledge how awesome I am for just a moment? I drew that play up myself. I’m like, a hero or something. Bow before your new God… and can I take my dinner to go?
 

Rex: “Yeah, did you see the feet on that guy? I bet he has a REAL hard time buying sneakers off the rack… I’m gonna get a tattoo of his big toe on my calf… oh shoot, I forgot to call a play before the clock expired…”

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, KingBoots8 said:

Greggggg: “Thanks, Wade. I’ll take it from here. I’m gonna completely revamp this team and still find a way to lose, but we are gonna hit our opponents $uper hard.”
 

Mularkey: “I’ve got a good QB, and I’ve got a gameplan. There’s absolutely no way a Third-String Steelers team can beat us now, right? RIGHT?!?
 

Jauron: “Hey Josh, we can’t make effective punts if you keep getting us touchdowns. I’m gonna need you to hold off a bit and throw more check downs please.”

 

Chan: “I didn’t play Josh because it wasn’t his turn.”

 

Saint Doug: “I mean, he’s ok, but can we take a second and acknowledge how awesome I am for just a moment? I drew that play up myself. I’m like, a hero or something. Bow before your new God… and can I take my dinner to go?
 

Rex: “Yeah, did you see the feet on that guy? I bet he has a REAL hard time buying sneakers off the rack… I’m gonna get a tattoo of his big toe on my calf… oh shoot, I forgot to call a play before the clock expired…”

 

Yep. It might not be popular with some but we don't just have a better QB than all of those years we have a better Head Coach too. Josh is a bigger and more important upgrade than Sean is. But they are both definitively better than what went before.

[Chaos]

50 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

If I imagine Josh (as he is now, so not factoring in a development arc as if he was a rookie in 02) as the Quarterback of each of the teams going back to the start of my fandom in 2002 then I think they break to drought in 2003 with Williams as Head Coach. The D was very good that year. Any sort of offense they are a playoff team. Likewise they'd have made it in 04 (should have anyway) and would have been a potential Superbowl contender. The 05 and 06 teams were not as strong. They lost Pat Williams and London Fletcher and Spikes had the injuries and barely played over those two seasons. I think they'd have been playoff competitive but would have been touch and go to get in. The 2007 team was terrible. How they won 7 games has long since been a mystery to me. I think that was the 3rd worst team of my fandom after 2010 and 2018. I know you look at it and go "they went 7-9, Josh would have got 2 more wins" but that roster sucked I think if they played that schedule 10 times they don't get to 7 wins more than once. 2008 and 09 they probably make it. 2010, no. 2011, possibly. 2012 yes. 2013, no. 2014, yes. 2015 I think they'd have been a Superbowl contender with Josh and any drought coach EXCEPT Rex. 2016 playoffs. 

 

My breakdown of the 15 years of the drought that I watched would be:

 

2 genuine Superbowl contending years (04, 15)

6 likely playoff years (03, 08, 09, 12, 14, 16)

3 playoff contention 50/50 in/out years (05, 06, 11)

4 playoff misses (02, 07, 10, 13)

 

This was a lot of work and a nice write up. But would “roster sucks” have been able to be corrected with the bigger checkbook?

[Ben]

I think they both would have been out of range financially then. Remember cash to cap? Hard to pay Josh and a top flight coach. 

[Don Otreply]

45 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Yep. It might not be popular with some but we don't just have a better QB than all of those years we have a better Head Coach too. Josh is a bigger and more important upgrade than Sean is. But they are both definitively better than what went before.

True enough, 

[GunnerBill]

27 minutes ago, Chaos said:

This was a lot of work and a nice write up. But would “roster sucks” have been able to be corrected with the bigger checkbook?

 

And better GMs (our GMing was arguably even worse than our coaching in the drought). Although over 15 years it is really hard not to have 2 or 3 down years roster wise. If a franchise QB has a 3 contract career that is about 15 years you likely have 3 teams around them in that period. So some of it avoidable, some not. 

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, oldmanfan said:

Gailey would have been a good coach for Josh.  I wonder if Mularkey would have done well with him.

Marrone and Hackett would have ruined Josh though. That or bench him way too soon and never give him a chance to win the starting job again. 

[Another Fan]

Under Rex he wouldn’t have been the best but easily the most exciting QB in the league. Think of Randall Cunningham under his dad.   Rex would prob just let him do his thing since “his specialty” was defense.

 

 

Under Gailey he would have been lethal as well

[Gregg]

Just now, Another Fan said:

Under Rex he wouldn’t have been the best but easily the most exciting QB in the league. Think of Randall Cunningham under his dad.   Rex would prob just let him do his thing since “his specialty” was defense.

 

 

Under Gailey he would have been lethal as well

 

Rex went to the AFCCG twice with Mark Sanchez as his QB. I wonder what he could have done with Josh.

[2003Contenders]

1 minute ago, The Jokeman said:

Marrone and Hackett would have ruined Josh though. That or bench him way too soon and never give him a chance to win the starting job again. 

The only thing I will say is that that Marrone did get to 9-7 in 2014 with Kyle Orton at QB. Plug the current version of Josh Allen into that lineup, and the team definitely makes the playoffs.

[QB Bills]

Put any of the drought era QBs in place of Allen the last few years and McDermott is back in Carolina coaching DBs right now.

[Orlando Buffalo]

If the Bills had drafted Allen under Marrone we never get to the point where Josh is Josh. Marrone made sure EJ Manuel never had a chance to grow, and Josh would have sucked his first 3 games and never seen the field again. We seem to forget that Josh was AWFUL his first 6 games, so bad even I thought we might have screwed up drafting him. And before anyone thinks I am saying EJ was gonna be similar to Josh, I am simply saying EJ was better his first few games than Josh but was never shown how to grow at all 

[transient]

16 minutes ago, Orlando Buffalo said:

If the Bills had drafted Allen under Marrone we never get to the point where Josh is Josh. Marrone made sure EJ Manuel never had a chance to grow, and Josh would have sucked his first 3 games and never seen the field again. We seem to forget that Josh was AWFUL his first 6 games, so bad even I thought we might have screwed up drafting him. And before anyone thinks I am saying EJ was gonna be similar to Josh, I am simply saying EJ was better his first few games than Josh but was never shown how to grow at all 

Yeah, gotta think the teams coached by Marrone with Allen as QB would have had the same record because he didn't want to develop a rookie QB so Orton still would have been the starter. Put 2023 Allen on that team and they win the SB with Schwartz as their DC.

[Dr. K]

1 hour ago, Gregg said:

 

Rex went to the AFCCG twice with Mark Sanchez as his QB. I wonder what he could have done with Josh.

Rex was a clown. He destroyed the Schwartz defense he inherited. 

Edited May 20 by Dr. K