The team's success will depend on two people:

[bananathumb]

Things are in place for a playoff season; we have talent and depth on defense; we have added receivers, running backs and tight ends on offense; we have drafted good replacement special teamers; plus, we have a number of starters returning from injury. Add this all up, and we SHOULD win more games than last year. I think, however, it will end up depending on Edwards' development and Jauron's game-day decisions.

 

If Trent plays like a kid (which he still is), there won't be any playoff this year. If Jauron doesn't make the most of his team's game situations, but instead blows calls like the horrible sideline pass coverage in the Dallas game, there won't be any playoff.

 

My feeling right now is that Edwards WILL make steady progress and Jauron will manage the games a bit better and the Bills will squeak into the playoffs.

But...I have NO basis for this belief whatsoever. Edwards and Jauron have done absolutely nothing in their respective careers to justify my faith. What are your thoughts on these two? Will they come through or not?

[jjsiepierski34]

Things are in place for a playoff season; we have talent and depth on defense; we have added receivers, running backs and tight ends on offense; we have drafted good replacement special teamers; plus, we have a number of starters returning from injury. Add this all up, and we SHOULD win more games than last year. I think, however, it will end up depending on Edwards' development and Jauron's game-day decisions.

 

If Trent plays like a kid (which he still is), there won't be any playoff this year. If Jauron doesn't make the most of his team's game situations, but instead blows calls like the horrible sideline pass coverage in the Dallas game, there won't be any playoff.

 

My feeling right now is that Edwards WILL make steady progress and Jauron will manage the games a bit better and the Bills will squeak into the playoffs.

But...I have NO basis for this belief whatsoever. Edwards and Jauron have done absolutely nothing in their respective careers to justify my faith. What are your thoughts on these two? Will they come through or not?

 

Edwards is young, and only in his second season; we all know what he did last year so having done "absolutely nothing" in his career is understandable. But using these terms to describe Dick Jauron is a bit careless in my opinion.

 

Look at his stint with the Bears. Jauron, led the greatest turnaround in team history during his third season. Chicago finished 13-3 in 2001, where the team went 8-0 in games decided by seven points or less, including back-to-back overtime victories. Jauron was named 2001 AP Coach of the Year.

 

I, for one, do believe he is an accomplished coach, and I have confidence in his ability to manage the game. Sometimes his brand may be a bit conservative, which translates to boredom for us fans, but winning 9-6 is the exact same as winning 42-17; being able to win both ways is the key, and I think our roster's talent allows for that flexibilty week by week...he preaches depth at each position to breed competition. This tells me that he has set the tone with every player up and down the roster, that no position is safe, and unproductive play will not be tolerated, or a change will be made.

 

I believe the Bills will come in at 10-6, and earn a wild card. We have a favorable strength of schedule, we are going to impose our will in the running game, win the time of possession game, stop the run much better with Stroud clogging the middle, and we have a great kicking game. The mark that Marv has left on the way this team will play, and win football games cannot go unnoticed.

 

Go Bills!

[eball]

Edwards is young, and only in his second season; we all know what he did last year so having done "absolutely nothing" in his career is understandable. But using these terms to describe Dick Jauron is a bit careless in my opinion.

 

Look at his stint with the Bears. Jauron, led the greatest turnaround in team history during his third season. Chicago finished 13-3 in 2001, where the team went 8-0 in games decided by seven points or less, including back-to-back overtime victories. Jauron was named 2001 AP Coach of the Year.

 

I, for one, do believe he is an accomplished coach, and I have confidence in his ability to manage the game. Sometimes his brand may be a bit conservative, which translates to boredom for us fans, but winning 9-6 is the exact same as winning 42-17; being able to win both ways is the key, and I think our roster's talent allows for that flexibilty week by week...he preaches depth at each position to breed competition. This tells me that he has set the tone with every player up and down the roster, that no position is safe, and unproductive play will not be tolerated, or a change will be made.

 

I believe the Bills will come in at 10-6, and earn a wild card. We have a favorable strength of schedule, we are going to impose our will in the running game, win the time of possession game, stop the run much better with Stroud clogging the middle, and we have a great kicking game. The mark that Marv has left on the way this team will play, and win football games cannot go unnoticed.

 

Go Bills!

I commend your courage in posting anything regarding Dick Jauron that doesn't begin and end with "he sucks." That is the generally accepted party line around here.

 

Jauron's coaching record at this point is anything but distinguished, aside from that admittedly remarkable 2001 season. His detractors will assert that was Dick's fault. His supporters will argue he has been dealt a poor hand of cards.

 

I'm in the middle, but lean towards the positive. Jauron inherited a pretty crappy roster in Buffalo and has turned in two surprisingly competitive 7-9 seasons while assisting in a "restock the cupboard" process that is nearly complete. There are still holes and question marks, but many reasons to be optimistic the playoff drought may soon end.

 

At his worst, Jauron is a respectable, respectful, conservative coach who gets his players to believe in him and fight every game. It's a shame a guy could be so ridiculed for that.

[apuszczalowski]

And Jaurons success will depend on the success of his offensive and defensive co-ordinator, and players staying healthy.

 

Who knows what kind of success the team could have had if it wasn't starting street FA's half way through the season because their original starters were all on IR. I'm not convinced that he doesn't know what he is doing or is a bad coach due to the Dallas game, a game they should have never been in, and if it was for the defence, they would have been blown out, and if the offence would have been mediocre at best and scored some more points, they would have won.

[Sisyphean Bills]

and c) Turk Schonert.

[Tcali]

Things are in place for a playoff season; we have talent and depth on defense; we have added receivers, running backs and tight ends on offense; we have drafted good replacement special teamers; plus, we have a number of starters returning from injury. Add this all up, and we SHOULD win more games than last year. I think, however, it will end up depending on Edwards' development and Jauron's game-day decisions.

 

If Trent plays like a kid (which he still is), there won't be any playoff this year. If Jauron doesn't make the most of his team's game situations, but instead blows calls like the horrible sideline pass coverage in the Dallas game, there won't be any playoff.

 

My feeling right now is that Edwards WILL make steady progress and Jauron will manage the games a bit better and the Bills will squeak into the playoffs.

But...I have NO basis for this belief whatsoever. Edwards and Jauron have done absolutely nothing in their respective careers to justify my faith. What are your thoughts on these two? Will they come through or not?

 

There is no doubt we have more talent this year.Yes Trent must be more manlike and stop folding up inside the 20....BUT----we still have our mediocre DEs--lets hope the new guy has some talent.

[ieatcrayonz]

You had me at a)

[Captain Hindsight]

And Jaurons success will depend on the success of his offensive and defensive co-ordinator, and players staying healthy.

DJ is a delegator. He lets the cordinators do their thing and stays out of their way. His success is directly in the hands of schonert and Fewell

[Dan]

DJ is a delegator. He lets the cordinators do their thing and stays out of their way. His success is directly in the hands of schonert and Fewell

If DJ would only acknowledge the Chroise and stop protecting the rest of the league, he would be known as the greatest coach of all time after the Bills win something like 57 straight games.

[Fan in San Diego]

Don't forget injuries ! We got bitten bad last year and the staff did a good job of dealing with it. If we get a pass this year on the injury bug, watch out ! We are going places.

[keepthefaith]

Edwards is young, and only in his second season; we all know what he did last year so having done "absolutely nothing" in his career is understandable. But using these terms to describe Dick Jauron is a bit careless in my opinion.

 

Look at his stint with the Bears. Jauron, led the greatest turnaround in team history during his third season. Chicago finished 13-3 in 2001, where the team went 8-0 in games decided by seven points or less, including back-to-back overtime victories. Jauron was named 2001 AP Coach of the Year.

 

I, for one, do believe he is an accomplished coach, and I have confidence in his ability to manage the game. Sometimes his brand may be a bit conservative, which translates to boredom for us fans, but winning 9-6 is the exact same as winning 42-17; being able to win both ways is the key, and I think our roster's talent allows for that flexibilty week by week...he preaches depth at each position to breed competition. This tells me that he has set the tone with every player up and down the roster, that no position is safe, and unproductive play will not be tolerated, or a change will be made.

 

I believe the Bills will come in at 10-6, and earn a wild card. We have a favorable strength of schedule, we are going to impose our will in the running game, win the time of possession game, stop the run much better with Stroud clogging the middle, and we have a great kicking game. The mark that Marv has left on the way this team will play, and win football games cannot go unnoticed.

 

Go Bills!

 

Living in Chicago during the Jauron era and following the Bears then would give you a different perspective on Jauron and the magical 13-3 season. They were a very lucky team that year pulling out last minute victories several times on big defensive plays and special teams plays. Jauron has never been able to back up that performance with anything close from his teams or coaches. If you throw out his best and worst years, you see a dismal coaching record otherwise. Unless he makes some changes in his approach to the game, expect him to become the bottleneck for this team as the talent now and in the near future might exceed his ability to coach it. I look at one recent decision that he made which tells me a lot. Hiring Turk as the OC. To me, that was an opportunity to improve the club. Did he do it? We don't know. What we do know is that he did not make an exhaustive search or interview a number of outside candidates. He chose to take the path of least resistence and hire the guy in the office down the hall. He took the typical Dick Jauron "safe" approach. Maybe Turk proves to be a wonderful coordinator, time will tell. What really bothers me is the manner in which Jauron chose him without bringing in several qualified candidates for interviews. Jauron is all about the comfort zone and playing it safe. That might work as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but in football, I prefer a more aggressive approach. One that puts pressure on the opponent to win. I don't see that from this coach. 13-3 then means nothing now.

[jjsiepierski34]

Living in Chicago during the Jauron era and following the Bears then would give you a different perspective on Jauron and the magical 13-3 season. They were a very lucky team that year pulling out last minute victories several times on big defensive plays and special teams plays. Jauron has never been able to back up that performance with anything close from his teams or coaches. If you throw out his best and worst years, you see a dismal coaching record otherwise. Unless he makes some changes in his approach to the game, expect him to become the bottleneck for this team as the talent now and in the near future might exceed his ability to coach it. I look at one recent decision that he made which tells me a lot. Hiring Turk as the OC. To me, that was an opportunity to improve the club. Did he do it? We don't know. What we do know is that he did not make an exhaustive search or interview a number of outside candidates. He chose to take the path of least resistence and hire the guy in the office down the hall. He took the typical Dick Jauron "safe" approach. Maybe Turk proves to be a wonderful coordinator, time will tell. What really bothers me is the manner in which Jauron chose him without bringing in several qualified candidates for interviews. Jauron is all about the comfort zone and playing it safe. That might work as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, but in football, I prefer a more aggressive approach. One that puts pressure on the opponent to win. I don't see that from this coach. 13-3 then means nothing now.

 

By "throwing out a coach's best and worst years" we're Bell Curving, making every coach average, and basically saying we don't care, or take into consideration a coach's best and worst years? That's an odd way of looking at a coach's historical data in my opinion.

 

By making game-winning special teams, and defensive plays for touchdowns, this constitutes lucky for the aforementioned Bears team? I don't believe they were lucky, I believe they were prepared, and opportunistic. Luck becomes such a bail-out term used by losers. The person usually referring to luck is the player/coach at the press table saying "if only we were a little lucky..." or "if luck would have been on our side tonight, we would have..." blah, blah, blah. A team going 13-3 in the NFL, and then the subsequent Coach winning the Coach of the Year award can't be based on luck...

 

That being said, I see your point in his inability to back anything up following the performance that year, but he had a GM bail on him, and a rotating QB position us Bills fans can laugh at. I think he is the right man for the job considering the age demographic of this Bills team, and I think he chose stability when he chose Schonert; stability that a young QB needs to succeed in today's NFL. By choosing Turk, the philosophy and terminology will remain in tact, and the youngster will feel that much more comfortable going into season 2. I also believe he chose Turk with these same characteristics in mind to protect himself a bit, knowing that he needs to win this coming season, or his goose is probably cooked...hiring a new OC will just take that much more time for everyone to adjust. Despite our horrible pass efficiency, and ranking, I don't believe Jauron thinks we are that far off from being in the top 15 NFL offenses...

[San-O]

By "throwing out a coach's best and worst years" we're Bell Curving, making every coach average, and basically saying we don't care, or take into consideration a coach's best and worst years? That's an odd way of looking at a coach's historical data in my opinion.

 

By making game-winning special teams, and defensive plays for touchdowns, this constitutes lucky for the aforementioned Bears team? I don't believe they were lucky, I believe they were prepared, and opportunistic. Luck becomes such a bail-out term used by losers. The person usually referring to luck is the player/coach at the press table saying "if only we were a little lucky..." or "if luck would have been on our side tonight, we would have..." blah, blah, blah. A team going 13-3 in the NFL, and then the subsequent Coach winning the Coach of the Year award can't be based on luck...

 

That being said, I see your point in his inability to back anything up following the performance that year, but he had a GM bail on him, and a rotating QB position us Bills fans can laugh at. I think he is the right man for the job considering the age demographic of this Bills team, and I think he chose stability when he chose Schonert; stability that a young QB needs to succeed in today's NFL. By choosing Turk, the philosophy and terminology will remain in tact, and the youngster will feel that much more comfortable going into season 2. I also believe he chose Turk with these same characteristics in mind to protect himself a bit, knowing that he needs to win this coming season, or his goose is probably cooked...hiring a new OC will just take that much more time for everyone to adjust. Despite our horrible pass efficiency, and ranking, I don't believe Jauron thinks we are that far off from being in the top 15 NFL offenses...

 

 

1. How many winning seasons has D.J. had.

 

2. How many playoff seasons has D.J. had.

 

3. How many playoff games has D.J. won.

[todd]

Here's something we probably won't argue about:

 

DJ is the first actual PROFESSIONAL and NFL credentialed head coach we've had since Wade Phillips. He's better than Meathead, and way better than !@#$ (Greggggggg Williams).

[BillsVet]

Jauron's hiring of Schonert is the most questionable move this team made in the off-season. To me, it's understandable that no prospective OC wanted the job, because Jauron might be in the final year of his deal. That's not a lot of job security for an incoming OC. With that in mind, Schonert was probably DJ's only option.

 

The biggest question with Schonert will be whether or not he's allowed to call his own game. If he his, it could disrupt Jauron's team gameplan which emphasizes strong defense, special teams, and no big risk taking on offense.

 

I would agree that this season hinges on how much Edwards progresses, and if Jauron departs from his uber-conservative gameplans. DJ's got the players, especially on defense, to do things he hasn't been able to do in a long time. If the Bills consistently line up in 2 TE sets like last season, it'll be another long year on offense.

[Pete]

it will depend on:

 

Staying healthy

Rookies contributing this year

a few lucky bounces

 

I think we will be very good this year and fun to watch!

[San-O]

Jauron's hiring of Schonert is the most questionable move this team made in the off-season. To me, it's understandable that no prospective OC wanted the job, because Jauron might be in the final year of his deal. That's not a lot of job security for an incoming OC. With that in mind, Schonert was probably DJ's only option.

 

The biggest question with Schonert will be whether or not he's allowed to call his own game. If he his, it could disrupt Jauron's team gameplan which emphasizes strong defense, special teams, and no big risk taking on offense.

 

I would agree that this season hinges on how much Edwards progresses, and if Jauron departs from his uber-conservative gameplans. DJ's got the players, especially on defense, to do things he hasn't been able to do in a long time. If the Bills consistently line up in 2 TE sets like last season, it'll be another long year on offense.

 

Was it a three year deal?

[Pyrite Gal]

1. How many winning seasons has D.J. had.

 

2. How many playoff seasons has D.J. had.

 

3. How many playoff games has D.J. won.

If this were the only measures used then so much good reality is thrown out decisions get pretty nonsensical. Marv simply stunk in his initial HC outing based on record, but fortunately the Bills decision-makers at the time lived in the real world and hired him anyway.

 

While Belicheat's recent history certainly proves that winning is not the only thing, again by this logic after him leading Cleveland to the playoffs once (and they lost that game) there is no way one would hire him if you only asked the three questions you ask.

 

There clearly is so much more to assessing an HC based on reality that I think the logic of only caring about these three questions is clearly flawed.

[San-O]

If this were the only measures used then so much good reality is thrown out decisions get pretty nonsensical. Marv simply stunk in his initial HC outing based on record, but fortunately the Bills decision-makers at the time lived in the real world and hired him anyway.

 

While Belicheat's recent history certainly proves that winning is not the only thing, again by this logic after him leading Cleveland to the playoffs once (and they lost that game) there is no way one would hire him if you only asked the three questions you ask.

 

There clearly is so much more to assessing an HC based on reality that I think the logic of only caring about these three questions is clearly flawed.

 

 

WRONG: You answers are incorrect. Thank you for playing. Next contestant.

[keepthefaith]

By "throwing out a coach's best and worst years" we're Bell Curving, making every coach average, and basically saying we don't care, or take into consideration a coach's best and worst years? That's an odd way of looking at a coach's historical data in my opinion.

 

By making game-winning special teams, and defensive plays for touchdowns, this constitutes lucky for the aforementioned Bears team? I don't believe they were lucky, I believe they were prepared, and opportunistic. Luck becomes such a bail-out term used by losers. The person usually referring to luck is the player/coach at the press table saying "if only we were a little lucky..." or "if luck would have been on our side tonight, we would have..." blah, blah, blah. A team going 13-3 in the NFL, and then the subsequent Coach winning the Coach of the Year award can't be based on luck...

 

That being said, I see your point in his inability to back anything up following the performance that year, but he had a GM bail on him, and a rotating QB position us Bills fans can laugh at. I think he is the right man for the job considering the age demographic of this Bills team, and I think he chose stability when he chose Schonert; stability that a young QB needs to succeed in today's NFL. By choosing Turk, the philosophy and terminology will remain in tact, and the youngster will feel that much more comfortable going into season 2. I also believe he chose Turk with these same characteristics in mind to protect himself a bit, knowing that he needs to win this coming season, or his goose is probably cooked...hiring a new OC will just take that much more time for everyone to adjust. Despite our horrible pass efficiency, and ranking, I don't believe Jauron thinks we are that far off from being in the top 15 NFL offenses...

 

Actually Jauron got a contract extension and big raise from Jerry Angelo following the 13-3 season.

 

Regardless of which side of the debate we're on, this is a "SHOW ME" year for the Bills and Jauron. If he's any kind of coach along with some better talent, the Bills have to start beating other teams with winning records. Been a long time since that happened on a consistent basis. I haved no faith in this staff of coaches from an offensive standpoint and only hope that they don't ruin Trent in the next year or two.