Does anyone have a credible plan for improving Bills

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

By Week 8, Alex van Pelt will look like a credible option, even when compared to these "saviors" like Gruden (who took a team created by Dungy and won ONCE with them before he lost control) or Marty Schottenheimer. Watch.

 

 

We will see how he responds as the OC first. It seemed to me that the play calling used a little more of the field, something i was desperately hoping for. Clearly the 2 minute drill looked sloppy, patricularly for a no huddle team so i am hoping to hear there is some focus there.

 

Bottom line for AVP will be figuring out how to get TO and LE in the game. If he can't get that done, I am not sure he is ready the D and ST also.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

Not saying You're right or wrong...But did You feel the same way when the Bills lost a close one to the Pats in the 2006 Opener? I did...Now I'm not so easily fooled...We'll see...

My thought exactly. Perhaps the biggest indictment of the Bills FO lack of progress with Jauron in the saddle was the parallel between this 06 game and this one. In each case the Bills had the games destiny in their own hands and due to a mental decision by a player (McKelvin in this case and I think WM losing track of which down he was going for the endzone on a 4th and 1). We lost the game.

 

 

In both cases, the Jauron led team surprised the Patsies with their early season fight, but in both cases the team lost due to their immaturity.

 

In a more competent world we would have learned from the earlier error and through team continuity either the return guy would know to take a knee in the endzone or if a talented newbie like McKelvin would have been reminded by an older hand of the game situation.

[pBills]

I doubt it as I have not seen one from any TSW posters.

 

I totally agree that Jauron is not the HC to get the job done here so I have no problem with canning him.

 

However, as some have said, responsibility starts at the top and last I checked though the HC is the top of the on field hierarchy, the problems with this team go beyond the on field foolishness of McKelvin and clearly extend to the player selection and acquisition and the losing result under its owner since the great work of the last GM with independent cojones, Polian was sent packing by Mr. Ralph.

 

There are few steps as silly as somehow blaming our 0 for a decade playoff streak on an HC who has failed by racking up three pathetic 7-9 records in a row. Merely calling for the firing of Jauron would be laughable if it were not so patently stupid as a call for necessary change.

 

Perhaps canning Jauron might make a little sense if it were part of some larger grand plan for fostering the systemic changes need for the Bills to exceed mediocrity. However, I have sen nothing accompanying these calls for pseudo change that would indicate it is a step beyond merely flailing about to pretend to be different when the result would almost certainly be what we saw under Mularkey, GW, or if we were lucky under Wade.

 

What should a Bills fan do?

 

From my perspective, unfortunately there ain't much to be done while Mr. Ralph is Mr. Ralph. He deserves a ton of praise for keeping the team here when there were bigger bucks to be made elsewhere. This is a fact in my book. However, if one is honest this good fact does not nullify the fact that the losing attitude which permeates the team extends from his inconsistent meddling with the team and his sour relationships with key Bills such as Polian and Butler.

 

His seemingly pennywise and poundfoolish mismanagement of the team since the relationship he had with Butler led to him leaving us high and wet has been simply horrible. His dabblings at QB have been the lead disaster we have never recovered from and it seems difficult to me to argue that he was not directly and virtually individually responsible for much of it.

 

1. Only he and he alone could make a handshake deal with Jimbo to award him in his next contract (though such a guarantee directly flaunted the salary cap. Kelly had no next contract and Ralph paid him a million bucks walking away money showing this was an illegal deal. Ralph (with whatever Butler complicity but there was only two hands shaking here) completely miscalculated how much Jimbo had left when even an outside idiot like me could see we needed to start grooming a replacement a year earlier than we over-reached for TC.

 

2. This started a chain of QB miscues which while they cannot be laid solely on Ralph's door, there was enough real $ involved that clearly he played a big role in mismanagement of the RJ/Flutie situation, possibly the Hobert deal, probably the Bledsoe mismanagement and likely the JP mismanagement.

 

At any rate, no one fires the owner, and no one should root for his death (as this may well mean the team leaves) but one hopes that he will get a late life personality change that turns him into a good owner as he is the problem at the top in my view that some folks stupidly want to lay on Jauron. Jauron is not up to the job bit he is not responsible at all for 2/3 of the bad times.

 

What I think a Bills fan should advocate though is that this team and Mr. Ralph find a real football guy to be the GM for this team.

 

Beancounter Brandon may well be good at what he does, but managing a winning football team does not appear to be it.

 

If there is anyone who should be cashiered now it is Brandon. Job 1 of he new HC is gonna be to hire an HC who can do the job that Jauron cannot.

 

However, merely canning Jauron would be do bass ackward as the new HC would be hired with the $ and personality constraints as what we have had that firing Jauron is simply advocating that this team do nothing to make real changes that might make a difference.

 

 

Sorry I couldn't read anything after the fire Jauron part. No reason to waste my time on this one anymore than I already have.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

1. Ralph apologizes to Bill Polian, begging forgiveness for his past actions.

2. Ralph hires Chris Polian as new GM ASAP, but makes no formal announcement.

3. From now until the end of the season, Chris (with help from Bill) begins to plot the front office personnel for the next Bills regime.

4. The day after the Super Bowl (Monday), Chris Polian is announced as GM.

5. The next day (Tuesday), Jeff Littmann, Tom Modrak, John Guy, Dick Jauron, Perry Fewell, and every other misfit all receive their pink slip. Russ Brandon moves back over to marketing, Buddy Nix can stay in scouting, and of course Chuck Lester still has a job.

6. The next HC and all other key front office positions are filled within the next 2 weeks. Don't know who the HC is yet, but with all the research that Chris has done the past few months, he's bound to be a winner.

Sounds good (or at least better than knee jerk reactions to start by reaffirming past Mr. Ralph failures and Brandon personnel management failures by starting with a firing of Jauron) to me.

 

The irony here is that I doubt that Mr. Ralph has the maturity to crawl across glass on the Polian issue. Perhaps Polian committed some personal affront that Mr. Ralph cannot forgive, but as far as the good of the Bills as a team we would likely profit from him acknowledging his past errors.

[Prime Time]

Change the team colors to the same as MTN DEW so we are more extreme.

[GrudginglyOptimistic]

I don't understand your point on Kelly. His last season he led the Bills to a 10-6-0 record and a wild card playoff game at home against the upstart Jags. His Bills lost that game, while he got knocked out of the game injured. He called it a career after that, but what would you give to see the Bills win 10 games and earn a home playoff game today?? I don't think Jimbo played "a year too long" at all. And as far as Todd Collins was concerned, wasn't he a third round draft choice? How does that qualify as a "reach."? If anything, the Bills should have used an earlier pick on a better QB of the future back then. And I have never heard that Wilson tells his people who to draft. If he did, the Bills might very well have taken Doug Flutie as a rookie out of BC with the number one pick in the '85 draft, while HOF er Bruce Smith would have gone to the team drafting second.

 

And Jeff Litwin is the bean counter. Russ Brandon is the marketing guru, and Jim Overdorff is the contract and salary cap guy, in the "inner circle."

 

I think we had better all hope that the current group of people running and coaching the Bills makes a run at the playoffs this season, because at 91 years old, I dont' think Wilson has any intention of hiring another strong willed yet outstanding football guy like Parcells or Holmgren or an experienced GM, to come in and blow it all up for him again. He may be forced to fire DJ if he doesn't at least win 9 games this year. But I would not look for an experienced expensive coach to replace him. Most likely April or Fewell will come in and try their best.

 

My point on Kelly was that it seemed pretty clear to me from watching him as a player that his mental ability was still there that got us to 10-6 but physically he was showing the wear and tear he put his body through. From the recurring bursa sac problems with his arm to his not being as mobile as he used to be to avoid sacks it simply looked like a matter of time til some sack artist laid him out. This came in the Jax game.

 

The problem of the Bills led by Mr. Ralph miscalculating how much he had left was something I saw when the year before they drafted Collins I found myself surprised they did not take a QB in the draft or failing that acquire an FA back-up for Kelly.

 

There were two reaches for in the TC case.

 

1. He came from a winter weather run first school at U Mich and the Bills were clearly taking a risk that even if TC proved to be a sufficient talent that he would even exceed that great accomplishment by being a stud quickly in his career. I do not think anyone envisioned the happy-feet he turned out to have but it would have been not unreasonable and in fact a rational expectation that he would need another year before he was asked to start.

 

2. Did he in fact have the talent to be more than a solid back-up no matter how much time we gave him. Plan A was clearly to have Kelly last a year or more and ONLY Mr. Ralph could make the handshake deal so it was him as a person who committed to the Plan A of going with Kelly as the starter even though we were likely a year or so short of our plan B being ready to start (whether it was Mr. Ralph or not who decided to not draft and begin training his replacement a year earlier than we did). The fact of the handshake deal makes it impossible to reasonably describe Mr. Ralph as a bystander in this process.

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

We will see how he responds as the OC first. It seemed to me that the play calling used a little more of the field, something i was desperately hoping for. Clearly the 2 minute drill looked sloppy, patricularly for a no huddle team so i am hoping to hear there is some focus there.

 

Bottom line for AVP will be figuring out how to get TO and LE in the game. If he can't get that done, I am not sure he is ready the D and ST also.

 

If they double team TO and Lee there is no sense in trying to get them into the game. With that kind of commitment to shutting down those two guys there are going to be holes all over the defense. There was nothing wrong with exploiting those holes as the Bills did continually on Monday night.

 

Throw the ball to the open receiver. That is what all the great QBs do. If you can run TO and Lee down the field every play and take 4 DBs out of the defensive scheme underneath, then you can pick apart a defense without either man ever touching the ball. Plus rather than throwing lower percentage passes that are more likely to be intercepted, you get to chew up the D with higher percentage, safer passes.

 

I'm not sure why this is even an issue for some people. Wait - yes I am. Because that is what they said on ESPN right?

[kasper13]

1. Convince Ralph that his money is no good in the afterlife so he should spend it now and enjoy a Super Bowl win before it is too late.

 

2. Fill a Brinks truck with some of Ralph's previously mentioned money. Drive it to Bill Cowher's house. Say "Bill, you are the new Coach/GM of the Bills. What else do you want/need besides the money, you got it and do what you need to do to win it all"

 

3. Switch from a 4-3 to a 3-4 Defense. Seems to be the trend these days. If the offense continually practices against it, shouldn't they be good at playing against it on Sunday eventually? Get a LB with a good left arm.

 

4. Draft Tim Tebow and switch to the spread offense. Urban Meyer made a good point last week when he said the spread offense would work in the NFL it's just that nobody has the guts to try it. Why not be the first? Someone was the first to try the West Coast offense, run & shoot offense, the 46 defense, whatever. Some of those teams won championships.

 

5. Draft better. Address needs instead of taking 9 DB's every draft.

 

6. Sign a few good free agents.

 

7. Forget cash to cap and spend to get some quality depth in here. Poz goes out and Marcus Buggs starts. Buggs may be good someday but he has no experience. You get the point.

 

8. Forget the Home Game in Toronto. Takes away a home field advantage for one game. Stupid.

 

9. Need to be more agressive and get some big hitters in here. Punish teams. Make them give up before you do.

 

10. Learn how to close out (WIN) a game when you have a lead with little time left.

[TheChimp]

If they double team TO and Lee there is no sense in trying to get them into the game. With that kind of commitment to shutting down those two guys there are going to be holes all over the defense. There was nothing wrong with exploiting those holes as the Bills did continually on Monday night.

 

Throw the ball to the open receiver. That is what all the great QBs do. If you can run TO and Lee down the field every play and take 4 DBs out of the defensive scheme underneath, then you can pick apart a defense without either man ever touching the ball. Plus rather than throwing lower percentage passes that are more likely to be intercepted, you get to chew up the D with higher percentage, safer passes.

 

I'm not sure why this is even an issue for some people. Wait - yes I am. Because that is what they said on ESPN right?

Exactly. All these people saying that T.O. wasn't a factor are pure sh---disturbers who obviously didn't watch the game, or, as in the case of ESPN, don't CARE about the game and only want ratings. If AVP is smart, he will use T.O. EXACTLY the same way he used him MOnday night, and when the Bills DEFENSE can get the Offense the flipping ball back a few more times in a game, THEN you'll see Jackson's running creating chaos for defenses, making them commit 8 to the box a bit more, and T.O. and Lee catching home run balls as often as the day is long.