Sisyphean Bills

You're such a pessimist.

http://thetrawbros.files.wordpress.com/200...a-bikini-07.jpg

No, that is not true. I am just calling bull sh--. Listing the practice squad supports nothing whatsoever with respect to injuries. Every team in the NFL has practice squad players; it proves nothing. I've already posted several times that the Bills had injuries. That's stupid even for a straw man.

Nice post, kat. Say, are you a UK fan?

Check out the links. Some of those names played 0 minutes. That is too much? Here's E.J. Underwood's 2007 stats from NFL.com. http://www.nfl.com/players/e.j.underwood/g...gs?id=UND203145 This says he played a few minutes but for the New York Giants. Here is another link that clearly stated he was on the practice squad, which makes him ineligible to see any action on Sundays. http://www2.sportsnet.ca/football/nfl/play...E.J._Underwood/ Bottom line: Everybody knows there were injuries last year. But making sh-- up to make it seem even worse than bad is pathetic.

These guys were starters ... um ... when? http://www.nfl.com/players/ryanneill/profile?id=NEI632518 http://www.nfl.com/players/johnwendling/profile?id=WEN189981 http://www.nfl.com/players/leonjoe/profile?id=JOE270111 http://www.nfl.com/players/jasonjefferson/...le?id=JEF215144 http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/players/playerpage/1226144 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=10905 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=10256

Was it Flanagan's? No. that doesn't sound quite right.

Yes. What a display of professionalism. Thinking about some of the bad boss situations that I have been in 1st hand, I'd have to say the opposite usually happened. The team basically decides the boss is a loose cannon or joke and works harder to make things happen in spite of him. And, upper management wasn't asleep at the wheel -- those bad managers generally got moved aside to staff positions or found new positions in other companies. I've also had situations with a good boss and peers taking in-plant vacations in the group. And being bored to tears with the constant team meetings and lectures about personal accountability, etc. Well, maybe they do believe that. On the other hand, I still recall the body language of the Bills players against the Patriots last year and seeing Bills players smiling and laughing in the 4th quarter after the Patriots had scored a touchdown every time they had the football.

It seems like you have to name names. Like who exactly were all these 4th stringers that were starting.

The thing with that is that those games all came in different spots in the season. The Denver game early, the Dallas game in the middle, and the Giants game at the end of the season. Well, one might say that is a sign of consistency.

I wonder: if the anemic offense and paper-thin defense both make huge vaults forward to NFL average units (say 16-17th best), then the Bills record should be what? A 16-17th best team suggests something like 8-8 to me. 8-8 would be an improvement. I guess.

Unless, of course, he is merely a hostage to fate. On setting the direction, success does depend on finding and putting the right people in the right positions at the right times. Hiring one's son, one's childhood best friend, or a guy who'll work hard on the cheap do not necessarily equate to the right people. They may be much more comfortable hires. They may never challenge the boss's authority; but, ultimately it is success that wins the day in business. Is it better to risk ruffling some feathers with strong opinions to attain success or to play it safe and have peace and happy day dreams never knowing/caring if the runway is about to abruptly terminate?

On the bright side, the Bills offense is currently tied for 1st in the NFL in 2008.

There are quite a few fans here that think Trent Edwards is a good QB. In fact, the finger pointing often gets directed to injuries on the defense, Steve Fairchild, and no WR/TE talent beside LE. Yet you seem to be saying DJ would coach a perennial playoff team with a good QB and 21 other stiffs. So, which way is it?

Never assumed otherwise, eball. And, thanks for the discussion. I hope Turk turns out to be a gem too. (Although, I'm not banking on TS being much better and I'm not even going to guarantee that it can't get worse. )

The red zone is the money zone. If Trent Edwards is to emerge as a big-time, big-money, playoff team leading, NFL QB, he absolutely positively has to figure out how to get it done in the money zone. Good point. Offensive success depends on more than just the QB doing his job correctly. This brings to mind a QB named Doug Flutie, though. Flutie was a QB with some defects to his own game, who was not surrounded with superstars -- his OL was pretty bad actually, I lost count of how many times he wheeled around in the backfield running for his life in games. But, he often was able to wing it despite all the break downs and make things happen enough to move the sticks. With a stud defense, that was good enough to make the Bills a playoff team -- the last playoff team that we've enjoyed.

Like I said initially, "I believe a lot of that is deserved, btw." I don't think Fairchild was all that good an OC by any stretch. The offense was just horrible last year and he deserves criticism for that. I guess I am just wondering out loud if it was all Steve Fairchild's idea or not to put scoring points on the shelf to simply focus on minimizing turnovers and mistakes. As to your reference, yes, I remember reading that. Frankly, it is odd -- like a 3 headed purple squirrel. There are several hypothesis that could be put forward. I do recall reading similar quotes about Mike Martz' practices -- that lots of plays were practiced that never saw the light of game day. So, maybe Fairchild was just taking a page out of his mentor's book? Another explanation might be that Fairchild was not the problem, that he wanted to open things up and led his practices and preparation leaning that way, but was instead forced to revise his game plans to be more conservative. Schonert made some comments public around the time of his hiring that it might just be that Fairchild decided on game days to simply throw all his weight on the brakes and try to win the race by sliding. Whatever was truly going on, the offense was big time dysfunctional. Worst Bills offense statistically in their entire history. That's pretty damn horrible.

Jauron is a defensive coach (defensive backs) as well. They spent most of the draft picks and big ticket free agent moves this off-season to re-build the defense. To summarize the 07 defense, I'd agree that Fewell did a good job with the bad hand he was dealt. The defense came into the season with plenty of inexperience and talent holes and immediate went into the ditch with injuries. I'm hopeful that with a full compliment of players that stay healthy, he'll be able to turn a unit that couldn't stop anybody into a capable defense. Just stepping the D up to "average" would be a huge turnaround. I've seen others post on this as well, but Turk is a question mark. Jauron has had a dismal record in hiring offensive coordinators, to be honest. Schonert was a jounreyman QB and has been a journeyman QB coach who has skipped like a stone across the pond of the NFL; but, who knows? Hopefully, this time it's charmed. Schonert hasn't been given an major influx of talent as help either. There is Hardy and ...? (Are people serious that Barnes and/or Viti are difference makers?) And now the Lynch legal trouble. I wonder about all the blame being laid at the feet of Fairchild. I believe a lot of that is deserved, btw. On the other hand, trying to look at it from his perspective: he was given a new offensive line with players that had never played a meaningful down together before, the veteran QB regressed, he had to break in a rookie backfield with both Lynch and Edwards, and the system he wanted to run was a pass-first system that required perfect timing and big-time speed on the outside -- again with a rookie QB and some small, average WRs. A-Train was no Marshall Faulk. I wonder how much Losman's failure, Peerless's injury, and the lack of experience at RB influenced Fairchild.

Shouldn't that question be "juron who's dick?"

They've cornered the market. Yay! At least Reggie doesn't have to stand in the corner waiting for his agent to work all the corners of a rookie deal.

It's never too early to assume Schouman will keep Tony Gonzalez out of the Pro Bowl.

But Jackson is better than Larry Fitzgerald.

If it is not Jauron's fault in year 3 of his master plan, who's fault is it? Who else has had a major say in who the Bills have drafted and brought in the past 3 years? Who else chose the systems, kept the inferior players, hired the coaching staff? Let's say that there was a team stocked with excellent talent and the coaching staff was holding it back by not adapting to the strengths of the team, lacking in cajones, or otherwise just not taking advantage of opportunities or putting the team in the best position to win? How would you be able to know the difference between that and a team with poor talent that was coached by a genius? Bottom line: who knows if it is the players or the coaches at this point. This team is very young. They really haven't had success to this point. Jauron has been a head coach for 8 years and an NFL coach for 22 years and has had very little sustained success other than when he was Tom Coughlin's DC -- one miracle filled year with the Bears doesn't count as sustained success. If you want to believe that Jauron is a gifted football coach -- a "genius" in the jargon du jour -- and his only problem has been that he has never had any say in or ability to change the environment of the team he leads, that's fine with me. However, I don't buy it for a second. To be a great coach is to be a great leader. To be a great leader is to demonstrate superior leadership ability. That means getting the utmost out of situations that present themselves and the flexibility to adapt on-the-fly in dynamic situations. The suggestion that a great leader would both tolerate an environment of ineptness, be it from his reports, peers, or superiors, and also be portrayed in the mantle of a helpless victim is, well, incoherent. I hope that Jauron is the leader some have envisioned him to be and that he is developing the skills and assets of his players, his staff, the scouting department, the front office, and his bosses. I understand that he's a nice guy and would do anything for his guys, but sometimes great leadership requires a bit of the rod as well as the carrot. FWIW, I am not one that "just wants Jauron gone" and understand that if he leaves it would be another setback in what is becoming a long era of major setbacks for the Buffalo Bills. I'd much prefer that he abruptly blossoms into this genius coach many believe in/are hopeful for and that he takes the Bills over the hump to dynasty status. But he has no track record of doing so. It's good to be optimistic, but not to the point of kidding oneself.

Well, the truth is that nothing much has changed on offense. It's mostly the same players as last year with a few minor changes. The system is supposedly going to be the same, but with more variety and a new, unproven play caller. As others have said, some players might improve over last year. And, of course, some can and likely will regress. (I can't tell you how many times I thought the Bills OL in the Kelly era would finally gel and put it together only to see them regress and flail through the first half of the season.) To answer others questions: Trent must improve because he was becoming less and less effective as he piled up more starts and defenses became aware of how to defend him and the Bills offense. I know he gets a pass as a rookie, but his rookie season was a downward heading curve. If he regresses and continues to struggle, the Bills could be an offensive train wreck in 08 and more gasoline goes on to the QB controversy -- something nobody should really want to see. Who knows what Hardy's impact will be, but the odds are against a rookie WR coming in and turning what is an anemic and ineffective passing offense into a scoring machine. He may have the physical tools, but he doesn't have the experience and understanding of how to beat NFL pass defenses. It seems that the master blueprint being followed by the brain trust at 1 Bills Drive is to stack the defense with a sort of "defense wins championships" cliche strategy. The defense and special teams will put the ball in position for scoring chances (field goals). The offense just needs to minimize mistakes.

Well, maybe Lee Evans, as a guy that is basically a straight line deep threat, isn't exactly well suited to a passing offense that focuses on 3 and 5 step drops and getting the ball out instantly. (That's not saying "he sucks", btw. But, it's sort of hard to confuse him with a Wes Welker-type.)