Matthew Smiley out as Special Teams coach

[Billsfan4588]

I feel bad as a human, but it's overdue for the business. It's one thing for our special teams to not seem to ever have any special plays scripted to take advantage of the other team in specific situations/deficienies they may have in certain formations. It's another thing entirely for other teams to seemingly be able to find holes in our special team formations in key situations consistently. It was unacceptable and the time to correct it is now. This was another area we were soundly outplayed in by KC in. 

[LabattBlue]

Didn’t McD just say that he is coming back and will learn from his mistakes?

[Yobogoya!]

13 minutes ago, Utah John said:

Micah Hyde has made millions of dollars and his family is happily living in San Diego.  There's no way he comes back to work the crazy hours of an NFL coach.

 

But he'd be pretty darn good if he did.

I mean by that logic half the head coaches and coordinators in the league have no reason to be there. 
 

Hyde’s position on the practice squad was basically “coach on the field” with no real expectation of play time. And if he wants to chase a ring, that’s gonna be the only way he could do it at this point. Wouldn’t be a big shocker to me if he went that route. 

[davefan66]

Couple this move with hiring a senior defensive assistant, kinda feel the pressure is on McD to get us to the next step.

 

I don’t believe he makes either decision without being nudged by Pegula or Beane…or both.

 

The way he answered that Smiley would be back at the season ending presser makes me feel this wasn’t his decision.  He had all season to evaluate every coach. If he had issues with Smiley, feel he would have answered that differently.

Edited Sunday at 05:48 PM by davefan66

[JohnNord]

1 minute ago, jkeerie said:

Joe Buscaglia on the show Leading the Charge one week...said that McD and Smiley didn't see eye-to-eye and he expected he would be gone post season.  McD never throws anyone under the bus to the press, so either he had in mind post season to make the move and just didn't want to put it out there, or in his post season meeting with him, the differences were still pronounced and he realized he needed to make the change.

I would be curious to know what they disagree on considering they have a long history.
 

Smiley is one McDermott’s original coaches from 2017.  There’s only a handful left (Skipper, Boras, Babich etc)

 

 

[DapperCam]

4 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

I was really surprised to hear McDermott commit to Smiley at the press conference.
 

Say what you will about him, but McDermott usually makes good decisions about his staff.  When there’s a unit that struggles badly, he almost always moves on from that assistant.  
 

2017 - Rick Dennison

2018 - Danny Crossman/Juan Castillo

2021 - Bobby Johnson

2023 - Ken Dorsey

 

Frazier was essentially fired as well. Just allowed him to go out on his own terms.

[Breakout Squad]

1 minute ago, LabattBlue said:

Didn’t McD just say that he is coming back and will learn from his mistakes?

It’s a production based business. All 3 phases gentlemen. 
 

- Sean McDermott 

[Steptide]

It took them this long to figure it out? 

[JMM]

I have renewed hope. LETS GO!

[Steptide]

Just now, DapperCam said:

Frazier was essentially fired as well. Just allowed him to go out on his own terms.

I believe this also, but has there really even been an improvement in defense? 

[JohnNord]

2 minutes ago, Brand J said:

“Teflon” Sean 😆

Not really.  There’s turnover with every coaching staff each season.  My point is McDermott is willing to make changes with units that underperform.

 

 It’s a far cry from what we’ve previously had in Buffalo.  

1 minute ago, DapperCam said:

Frazier was essentially fired as well. Just allowed him to go out on his own terms.

I’m not 100% sure about that, and have seen mixed reports about his departure.  Some have said Buffalo was planning to keep him as DC and Frazier made the call to leave.  

 

If they were going to fire him, it would have happened now instead of in April.  
 

Maybe McDermott told him he was taking over play calling duties?  The timing of Frazier’s departure always has been weird.  

 

[transient]

23 minutes ago, Allen2D̶i̶g̶g̶s̶TBD said:

We haven't really had a good special teams coordinator since Bobby April

Not taking away from April as a coach but they also dedicated significant cap space and personnel to ST on some otherwise pretty talent devoid teams when he was the coordinator. Don't want to see them do that again...

[JohnNord]

7 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

McD hasn’t yet gotten this hire right for some reason.  They need to modernize their entire operation on Teams and quit clowning around with inexperienced hires.

Darren Rizzi?  

[aristocrat]

Thank god

[boco357]

Maybe Rizzi from New Orleans?  Since Moore seems to be getting job

[Wizard]

For the suggestion of McKelvin, will our emphasis be on best ways go handle muffed punts?

 

McKelvin is an expert in that area

[Don Otreply]

Hardly a surprise,

[Bills!Win!]

Next up is Von Miller then we will have gotten rid of all the dead weight on our team 

[DapperCam]

16 minutes ago, Steptide said:

I believe this also, but has there really even been an improvement in defense? 

No, but I’d argue we haven’t really had the talent to have a top defense the past 3 seasons. 2022 was the season after White tore his ACL, Von tore his mid season, and Poyer/Hyde were past their All Pro season and were on the decline.

 

In retrospect the coaching has been okay if you look at the talent on defense each season, it’s been pretty poor recently.

Edited Sunday at 06:05 PM by DapperCam

[gobilz]

Boom!