Bob DiCesare Column

[Rico]

Rico- I couldn't agree more. Our line needs more work, and I'm sure it will be addressed in the offseason if we don't see significant improvement.

 

Lossman has things to work on- notably accuracy, but unlike some of the other guys that have been here since Kelly, he actually carries himself like a QB. I really think this kid is going to be something special afre a few years.

 

Add Lee Evans and Willis, and we could have a good team.

 

and if the impatient, instant gratification mongers are gone by then...more tickets for us.

458368[/snapback]

Agreed.

 

JP's accuracy is definitely a concern, but I feel it is correctible... looked pretty good the 1st half of the Texans game... may take a few games yet, but the improvement will come.

[Adam]

Agreed.

 

JP's accuracy is definitely a concern, but I feel it is correctible... looked pretty good the 1st half of the Texans game... may take a few games yet, but the improvement will come.

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It could take a few years- but good things are worth waiting for!

[RuntheDamnBall]

No disrespect, but that's just stupid, Dan. And I expect better from you. If the Bills made the playoffs last year, and then got creamed in the first round in the playoffs, things would be completely different. Drew would still be our quarterback. At this point in the season, we would be 1-2, people would be slitting their throats about the quarterback play and why TD sucks and demanding his resignation for not knowing that Bledsoe stinks and standing pat when it was clear that Losman was the answer and needs to play, even if he makes some rookie mistakes.

458171[/snapback]

Nice.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Since when is holding somebody accountable "thriving on misery"?  I'll agree with that take on Sullivan, but the article linked in this thread by DiCesare was simply asking, "at what point is Donahoe going to be held accountable?"...and I agree, at some point we have to see wins and a playoff appearance. 

 

Donahoe has had some built in excuses along the way.  Salary cap jail, Rob Johnson, Bad first hire for a head coach, Mularky's first season, breaking in a new QB in JPL.  At what point are the excuses put aside and the man judged on the overall job that's been done?  Wins and losses are how people are judged in this league and based on that criteria TD hasn’t done a great job.  How many more years of no playoffs before you think it's time to change directions?  And no, I'm not advocating getting rid of TD right now, but I don't think it’s out of the question to ask for results after all this time.

 

Personally I give TD until after next season.  If we don’t see the playoffs at that point it’s time to move on.  That’s plenty of time for him to have molded this team into his “baby” and for us to judge him on how successful he’s been and where the team appears to be headed.

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Be careful, if one is going to try to site reality that Ws and Ls arer how you are judged in this league then one needs to actually embrace all of reality and recognize that while this use to be a sport that also happened to be a business, it now increasingly is a business that happens to also be a sport.

 

The reality is that one is not simply judged in this league when it comes to whether you keep your job or even judged Executive of the Year not simply by your W/L record but the course of the bottom-line financially and the directions profits have taken under your direction.

 

These two aspects are of course deeply related and it is really tough to continually but a bad product in terms of W/L on the field and still keep the turnstiles pumping.

 

Howevwer, by the measures which matter an awful lot:

 

1. 17 or so of the last 18 Bills homegames were sellouts.

 

2. Buoyed by a league that is now making money just not hand over fist but is picking up dollars with its teeth and toes too as the players and owners have operated as though they are partners rather than combatants, the value of the team is estimated to have doubled in TDs tenure.

 

3. In addition to being buoyed by the rise in the league, under TD the team has finally moved well into the 20th century and even is threatening to move into the 21st century with their business partnershps and regional marketing strategy. The move to St. John's Fisher allows the team to market more heavily to downstate populations, provides a better income source to the team than the good ol days in Fredonia and the team has rapidly progressed into computerization when it was not very long ago that the will calls were sorted into shoeboxes.

 

TD just got a big extension on his contract and the TD blasters not only fail to recognize the reality that he at worst is a mixed bag on the field in terms of pulling off some great high-profile moves (reading the market beautifully on Peerless, picking Mcgahee and still getting Kelsay, not trading Travis until he got a first day pick for him, snd havig it not work out on the field, but doing a nifty read in picking off Reed which allowed him to let PP go and stealing Denney off the phone from Pittsburgh as he has avoided the DE need by going for Reed- nothing works out 100% of the time but this was a sweet read).

 

This good news is easily balanced by the huge mistakes he made in passing on two now successful HC's Fox and Lewis to take the now fired GW, resigning Bledsoe after a horrid 2003, and the big one of not making the playoffs in his tenure. However, any real assessment on simplyhow he has done in atttracting on field talent in terms of players and management is a mixed bag in total rather than a total failure and when one factors in the financial off field performance keeping TD here is a no-brainer for RWS.

 

Ralph wanting to win it all before he goes to the great beyond is really the only hope folks who want to get rid of TD have and how Ralph feels inside who knows.

 

The NFL (as shown in its slow crawl toward and need for discipline from above to actually judge people solely based on performance rather than skin color is till a good ol boys network whete who you know no longer rules all but it still isn't perfect yet at all.

 

If you want to look at reality TD is the man here for the forseeable future.

[Lori]

It's what we do here...we love drive the car backward because its easier than looking in the review mirror.

 

Regarding the BN column, my thought was "why didn't we see this argument last December."    TD's record then was 23-25.  Just as "bad" if you go by Dicesare's logic.   

 

But oh, that's right, it wasn't politically correct to bash the Bills then like it's become over the past 10 days.  "Master of fan-pandering."  Gee, I can think of a great candidate for that description. 

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To DiCesare's credit, he has been consistent on this. (Whether you think he's consistently right or wrong is another matter....)

The quote Dan Gross referenced is from a column printed right after the Pittsburgh game - titled "Bledsoe deserves another shot", it ends like this:

"To say that Bledsoe can't win a Super Bowl is a safe play against the odds. Many great ones haven't. In fact, of the league's current starting quarterbacks, only Tom Brady and Brett Favre have.

 

"Bledsoe is still the Bills' best shot at making the playoffs next season. To me that means you give him the ball back."

 

More:

"The Bills had better be making this switch because they're convinced it'll get them to the playoffs. This season. No excuses. No grace periods. No insinuations from the front office that Losman has to grow into the job. We've already gone through this in variation, the year Donahoe was hired, when he overhauled a team a year removed from the playoffs and entrusted it to Gregg Williams. It's taken 3 1/2 seasons to rebound and this is no time to retreat. Who willingly backtracks from 9-7?" ...

 

"No excuses. Not a one. I don't want to hear about the tight ends being injured, the offensive line being nicked, the lack of a third wideout to bolster the passing game or schemes that fail to account for the blitz. Losman gets a rope no longer than the one used to hang his predecessor, and there wasn't much of a lead to that noose, now was there?

Even the most ardent Bledsoe detractors would have to agree. No matter how few games you think he helped win last season, you can't possibly blame Bledsoe for losing more than seven.

The Bills are saying Losman can do better than that. At least that had better be what they're saying."

[Mark VI]

DiCesare has 35 boxes of hot pockets in his freezer.