All_Pro_Bills

On my drive to work this morning I was listening to the Boomer and Carton show on WFAN. Billick was a guest this morning. The discussion centered around the playoffs, notably the Jets, the match ups this weekend, and what Brian did during his tenure with the Ravens to prepare the team for the playoffs and Super Bowl. IMO, some interesting remarks, articulate comments and insight by the former coach. Carton asked him 'when will you be announced as the next coach of the Buffalo Bills'? To this Brian remarked the team appears to be going in a 'different direction' seeming to prefer the 'hot coordinator' route to fill the head coaching vacancy. After the interview, Boomer made a few candid remarks, to paraphrase what I remember, 'If you're a Bills fans you've got to want a guy like Brian, someone who knows how to build and manage an organization'. To continue, 'The Bills have good players on their roster and an experienced head coach like Brian is what that team needs right now.' Prior to the discussion I had no issue if the Bills hired Billick. And after listening to the discussion it didn't change my opinion. My fear with the 'hot coordinator' route is unless we get lucky, we go back to learn on the job mode for another 3 years and basically go nowhere.

Agree, and considering the heartbreak this franchise has endured any coach that brings the Super Bowl championship to Buffalo would achieve immortality, be revered as close to God as a man can get. Sure you can go coach Carolina or Dallas, or wherever, win it there. Who will care? But win it for the Bills and you'll be remembered forever in Buffalo, and in football folklore, as the guy that brought success to this suffering but proud city and franchise. What other head coach opening can offer that?

No problem with Nix, but IMO this is the first step in bringing this organization up to speed. Making a run for Cowher would make sense, and make him assistant GM along with head coach with the idea of grooming him into the GM positon full time in 3-4 years (then Cowher picks the next HC) when age and workload might catch up to a guy in his mid-70's. Putting a succession plan from full time coach to full time GM in place could be a real selling point and something other potential suitors may not be in a position to do at the moment. Letting Modrak and Guy go next would be progess too. Not saying this is the plan, rather what I'd like to see unfold in the next couple weeks....

I suspect the fundamental reason Holmgren took the Cleveland job was the level of automomy he was granted to run the entire show. Something other posible opportunities did not clearly provide. Citing tradition as a reason for accepting the job is just standard sports cliché.

I thought he faired well given the circumstances, say a 6.5. But IMO, rating Brohm's performance is like critiquing NASCAR driver Jimmy Johnson in a Yugo at the Daytona 500.

Yes, if only the Bills offensive plan could utilize a parked car to screen off the defender we might stand a chance to put up some points. Seriously, Fitz has thrown for what? Under 100 yards per game the last 3? The upside with him running this offense is close to zero. Letting Brohm play would at a minimum give us a reason to watch the game. At least for the 1st quarter....

Miami also put a claim on Incognito. Keeping them from getting him is reason enough to sign him. And assuming he plays on Sunday maybe he'll give Mr. Wolfolk a taste of his own medicine?

I think you're right. As important as skill is, a great quarterback needs to be THE leader. The Bills offense lacks an identity which is manifested in its QB. TO is not a leader, Lee is a spokesman but not a leader in the truest sense. The Bills don't have a QB that's a leader right now. When I hear a QB say 'its all on me' and he starts using 'I' vs. 'we' when dicussing failures to execute then I know where headed in the right direction. A great quarterback enables the offense to dictate the play to the defense. The offense is consistently in down and distance situations where the defense has the edge (e.g. 3rd and longs all the time). That said we need to be realistic, an upgrade at quarterback without addressing the O-line during the offseason won't be enough. If QB is #1 upgrading the O-line (most notably OT) is #1A.

I do agree with this statment from Sullivan: "Wilson needs to nudge Brandon aside and do a serious restructuring of his football department". Looking for a coach prior to addressing the front office situation is illogical. A real football GM with experience at finding and acquiring pro and college talent is needed first. IMO we need a proven GM more than we need a proven head coach. Given that any accomplished GM would require hiring his own guy as coach as a term of employment, what does the search for a coach now mean? That Mr. Wilson has no intention of revamping the front office or more likely the current search for a new coach is being performed to identify candidates with an interest in the Bills position but we shouldn't expect any hiring of a new head coach until after the season when a new GM is named.

Just added TO to my Christmas card list! Assignment for TO: Next complain about Guy and Modrak....

This is a great point and in IMO, the most critical factor to success. Many call it continuity but I think it boils down to developing and sticking to a system and philosophy that breeds excellence at all levels of the organization, from the front office, free agency, drafting, to the sidelines, to performance on the field defined by winning. Teams like the Steelers, Eagles, Colts, and the system Parcells brought to several places, most recently to Miami are examples of high performance systems. The Bills management system, by all measures except fan interest and filling the stadium, is a complete failure this decade. The front office, pro scouting, drafting (this year's class looks good except our #1 to this point), head coach, offensive and defensive approaches, are all incapable of producing the results needed to win in the NFL as demonstrated by 10 years of futility. We don’t need any more evidence to see a change from the top on down is needed. One possible solution is easy. Look at what others do that are successful and then try to emulate them. Bring in people that have a demonstrated record of success and be willing to pay for it in time, effort, and money. Please, no more on the job 'B list' trainee's.

I won't be happy either until Jauron's successor is in place. My fear is Ralph goes back to the market and brings in another clunker vs. a seasoned and successful former/current head coach. A new coach has also got to be part of a new GM/HQ combo to get this franchise moving in the right direction after a decade of futility and frustration. Dick might be one of the worst head coaches of all-time but his current personel crew gets an 'F' grade too...

I'd be willing to give an unfounded assumption a try vs. attempting to violate the laws of physics by using small defenders to take on big blockers - mass times velocity = pancake, squish, crack.....

I believe you are correct. Even worse than the non-descript set of coaches from the mid-80's 2-14, 4-12 era. The real comedy of this is the Bills acted with such urgency to sign Dick to an extension last year. After all, he is such a hot item in the coaching profession that I'm sure there must have been a dozen other teams waiting to sign him if the Bills failed to come forward with an extension! Like Henny Youngman used to say 'take my coach, please'!!

Converting Bryan Scott to LB may seem completely stupid to any informed fan. But when you play 'dick ball' it makes perfect sense. Now the rationale for drafting all those DB's is clear. So what would you do? Scott 6-1 219 Harris 6-2 232 Maybin 6-4 250 What's the over/under on how many plays it will be before Scott gets injured from having to constantly take on blocks from 300+ lb offensive lineman?

I saw the ads for the 2012 movie and was speaking to a buddy of mine, a fellow Bills fan. The basic premise is the world comes to an end on December 21st, 2012. So we're talking about it, and he says 'The plot is missing a key ingredient. Yeah, the world comes to an end in 2012. Right after the Bills clinch home field advantage throughout the playoffs and are the clear favorite to win the Super Bowl!' Hadn't laughed that much in a while.

The FG would have made sense if they needed two scores and having no timeouts didn't appear to enter the thought process. Andy played it a different way and screwed up. He put faith in the defense to get the ball back and they didn't deliver. Give the 'Boys kudo's for staying aggressive and getting the first downs to get the game to knee-down mode.

All true. The real problem here is the only person capable of doing anything about 'the decade of disappointment' either does not see the problem/solution or refuses to take action.

Tell them to donate the tickets to the county prosecutors office. This should drop the crime rate when those inclined to break the law find out that instead of going to jail they will be forced to attend a Bills game at season's end. But it probably should be cleared with the Supreme Court to see if it violates the doctrine of 'cruel and unusual punishment'.

Writing this season off, I've taken to looking at draft position for 2010. The Bills currently sit in the 10th spot. This means there are 9 other teams that are worse from a win-loss perspective. After watching the Bills pathetic offense and valiant but over-matched and tired and spent defense I have to say that's amazing. There's just a lot of bad football in the NFL this year. I enjoy watching good NFL football too but with the exception of a handful of teams the NFL product in 2009 is not entertaining. There might be 5 or 6 great/good teams this season. The rest either suck or aren't worth the time to watch. Tonight's Saints/Falcons game might a good one but IMO there wasn't one decent game yesterday. Focusing on the Bills, the mid-80's were just as bad or worse, but I cannot remember ever being this disinterested. I think the discouragement is the result of a couple things: 1) the widespread availablity of information via the net, e-mail, blogs, etc., and numerous media outlets that didn't exist back then, 2) the likely root cause to the problem, bad coaching, poor drafting, substandard front office, is fairly obvious to most observers. Yet the one guy with the power to turn things around either doesn't see it or doesn't care to act.

I'm expecting the Bills offense to show some improvement this week but the biggest worry is going to be the Panther's running game on offense. With the yardage the Bills have been yielding and Carolina's own QB problems I expect them to give the Bills 'D' a steady diet of runs. They did it last week against the Buc's on their final drive. If it works, why not stick to it? With their current lack of size and skill at LB and the dismissal of any 'out of the box' thinking from Jauron and staff, (like moving Maybin to LB for the next couple weeks to get a big, fast, athletic, and healthy body on the field vs. riding the bench), I see a long day for the 'D' unless the 'O' can help out with a little ball control. Then maybe the Bills can squeeze out another ugly win.

The Rams moving back to L.A. aside, I find it ironic that the L.A. fanbase (if there is such a thing) which feels bitter about their team being taken away feels justified, and would not hesitate, to give the same screw-job to another fanbase given the opportunity, be it Bills, Jags, Vikings fans, or some other team. Guess its true: 'where you stand depends on where you sit'.

The first thing they need to do is get rid of the no huddle. The only people getting fooled is the offensive line because they don't appear to know the snap count on half the plays. Watch what Miami did, learn. Try and run the wildcat with Lynch and Jackson against the Jets. They won't be prepared for it since the Bills never do anything creative so who'd expect it? Give Edwards a rest. Fitz might not be the answer but its obvious Edwards is regressing every week. He needs to sit. And if it hurts his confidence he needs his mommy to tell him its time to grow a pair. Show some maturity, and man-up. Since you are not allowed to score less than zero the offense might hit bottom this coming Sunday. Its been stated many times before, but move Maybin to LB, even if its for blitz packages on 3rd down. For one, we don't have many left, and second, get the guy on the field because he's not contributing riding the bench, and last he's done nothing at DE. Its rumored that he's been on the field this year. Unfortunately, I expect none of the above to happen because why take chances, you might lose......

Firing Dick now would mean nothing for the 2009 season. This season is lost, write it off. Realistically we're looking at a top 5-6 draft choice and something like a 3-13 record. Other than satisfying the emotional reaction to fire the coach this team is going nowhere as long as the current front office remains in place. Maybe a great coach could coax a handful of victories out of this bunch but without better front office management a championship run remains nothing more than wishful thinking. The good thing is that after a decade of mediocrity we're finally going to hit rock-bottom. Nowhere to go but up! Ralph said something last year about this team not having the talent to win. He was talking about talent on the field. While he was correct his focus was misplaced or too narrow. More importantly, better talent is needed in the front office in order to correctly evaluate and pursue players to perform on the field, and WIN, on Sunday's. Unless changing the head coach is coupled with sweeping changes in the front office, changes that bring in fresh and intelligent football people empowered to make football decisions in the best interest of the franchise and the fans, then a new coach is going to do little except create an illusion of progress. Without changes in the front office, a change of coaches is no change at all. The question the media and fans should be asking Ralph isn't are you going to fire the coach? It's when are you going to fire the management team that put this football team on the field and replace them with somebody(s) that know how to build a winner?

When losing impacts cash flow, season ticket renewals, and the value of the franchise, winning will matter. But as far as fans supporting or not supporting the team we're all aware of the catch-22 here.