Matthew Smiley out as Special Teams coach

[TBBills Fan]

1 hour ago, Beck Water said:

 

Did he seriously?  That seems un-McD like.  

 

Can you point me at the presser or even about the time frame of the presser so I can go give it a listen?

I'll swap you for this video of Dion Dawkins dancing

Edit: to clarify, I'm not surprised that Smiley got the axe or in any way saying the Bills shouldn't have moved on from him.  

I'm just surprised if McDermott explicitly said that Smiley would return as the Bills ST coach next season.

 

 

 

It was during the end of season meet the press. Same day as beanes presser. I believe last Thursday 

[BuffaloBillyG]

28 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

 hard to grow a coaching tree when you keep cutting off all your branches isn't it

Good trees don't grow from bad seeds

[BigAl2526]

Can't say it's a surprise.  Just too many mistakes on special teams this past season.

[Chaos]

National media spends a lot of time discussion how Smiley is just not the guy to get the Bills across the finish line, even though they have Josh Allen on offense. 

[YoloinOhio]

[Solomon Grundy]

9 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

 

Scapegoat??

[Buffalo_Stampede]

14 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Scapegoat??

No need for a scapegoat. His unit always seemed unprepared.

[DabillsDaBillsDaBills]

I find it hilarious that our last 5 playoff losses are due to the defense playing like absolute garbage and McD's response has been to fire 2 special team coaches. We've yet to fire a defensive coordinator under McD. 

 

Ok, ok, Farwell wasn't 'fired' per se, we just didn't renew his contract. Reading between the lines McD blamed him for the 13 second meltdown. 

 

Smiley was not good as ST coach, but I'd love to see this type of accountability for our defensive minded HC / DC's

[eball]

Smiley’s units were consistently underprepared. This was a move we all knew had to happen. 
 

[ganesh]

10 hours ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

 

 

Don't know who the "assistant ST coach" was last year but with the promote from within philosophy McDermott employs...that person is likely the odds on favorite to get the job, right?

Which would really suck

[Solomon Grundy]

41 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

No need for a scapegoat. His unit always seemed unprepared.

More like Billygoat

[BobbyC81]

I bet he’s not ‘smiling’ now.

 

Why did it take them a month to make this decision?

[BuffaloBillyG]

8 hours ago, ganesh said:

Which would really suck

Why is that? What do you know about the guy?

 

Truth is I dislike the almost automatic "promote from within" philosophy McDermott has a lot as well...but we don't know what we don't know. Heck Brady worked under Dorsey and that turned out just fine. 

 

For all we know, Harkey had some really good ideas and was shot down by Smiley. Maybe he didn't. Who knows. 

 

Either way I can't say if Harkey would be a good or bad hire because there is literally nothing typically known about an Assistant Special Teams Coach. 

[\GoBillsInDallas/]

 

[JGMcD2]

1 hour ago, BuffaloBillyG said:

Why is that? What do you know about the guy?

 

Truth is I dislike the almost automatic "promote from within" philosophy McDermott has a lot as well...but we don't know what we don't know. Heck Brady worked under Dorsey and that turned out just fine. 

 

For all we know, Harkey had some really good ideas and was shot down by Smiley. Maybe he didn't. Who knows. 

 

Either way I can't say if Harkey would be a good or bad hire because there is literally nothing typically known about an Assistant Special Teams Coach. 

Brady was never a Dorsey disciple—he was a deliberate hedge against Dorsey and a calculated gamble on a fading star. His hiring represented exactly what you’re advocating for: an external perspective designed to challenge the status quo.

[BuffaloBillsGospel2014]

This is definitely an encouraging sign, definitely a few years too late (he should have been gone after bass out of bounds kickoff in 13 seconds imo) but it's good to see they know where they aren't good enough. Now let's hope they try new defensive schemes as well or hire in some newly fired coaches to help bolster the defense at the very least.

[BuffaloBillyG]

23 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

Brady was never a Dorsey disciple—he was a deliberate hedge against Dorsey and a calculated gamble on a fading star. His hiring represented exactly what you’re advocating for: an external perspective designed to challenge the status quo.

Just because someone works under someone else does not instantly make them a disciple of the coach in charge was my point. If Harkey is the hire, we don't know if he shares the same philosophy, thought process, emphasis as Smiley did. For all we know he's the Ying to Smiley's Yang. 

 

Again, we don't know what we don't know. So stating in a factual manner that the hiring would suck is a bit far. As I said, we don't know what we don't know. 

 

If Harkey is hired, sure it's more than fair to be skeptical that something will change. It's more than fair to have the opinion that it's just status quo.  But it's also wise to be open to see if things improve before automatically assuming it won't.  Believe me, if this is the route they go I'll roll my eyes harder than most here...but I'll have an open mind and see the results before I say it sucks 

[Bruffalo]

The ST was bad, I don't think we need to read into it more than that.

 

I'm glad he's gone and hopefully whoever comes in can clean up that phase of the game.  

[JP51]

Not a fan... we should be able to do better... 

[Dan Darragh]

Well, I guess all our problems are solved now