OldTimer1960

He may be very bright, but he sure doesn't have much experience - DC at Towson State Recruiting coord & safeties coach at Eastern Michigan Def quality control (shade more than paid intern) at Jets Assistant DB coach Jets LB coach Bills While I like the idea of continuity of scheme and he might be a true undiscovered young genius, that is not the resume of a NFL DC candidate. If they put him in charge, it is because they see some greatness in him, not because he worked his way up the ladder. To be clear, I am not dumping on him, but I am saying that if he gets the job it is because they see potential in him - not because he has shown that he can "do it"

If your speculation is correct, then Tressell may have made it a condition of interviewing to not make his interview public. Being mentioned as a possibility to leave would likely damage his recruiting.

Other than the Cowboys, how many teams are paying off stadiums that they paid for? I may be wrong, but I don't think many teams pay for their own stadiums, especially $1B ones. Now, I am not saying that the Bills don't have a good stadium deal, but it isn't likely any better than most teams get (especially considering that the stadium is what, 43 years old). i don't think that you can ignore that ticket prices are among the lowest in the league, they have almost no luxury box income (which teams like Dallas, Jets, Giants, Washington don't share with other teams) and their merchandise sales are surely among the lowest in the league. I am just not seeing how the Bills have the finances to spend like the Cowboys, Jets, Giants, Redskins etc can.. Beyond that, I don't see where that spending has gotten the Cowboys, Jets and Redskins very far anyway. Sure, I'd love it if the Bills could go on a spending spree this offseason and nail some high priced free agents like the Dolphins did last year, but where did that get the Dolphins? I would argue that the Bills approach to FA (which mirrors that of the Steelers and Pats in terms of signing mid-tier players) is as effective as big-splash free agent signings (Of course, there are exceptions like Peyton Manning).

So, double or triple the ticket prices and everyone here pony up the money to fill the stadium. That seems reasonable - until not enough people in Buffalo can afford to go, attendance dwindles and the team ends up in Toronto or LA. I won't purport to know for sure if the TV revenue is enough for the Bills to spend to the full cap every year without losing money, but I definitely believe that the playing field is not level in terms of team revenue and profits. I am very comfortable guesstimating that the Bills are in the lower 25% of the league in profitability.

I don't think this means anything. This coach was old and retired on his own.

I read QB blah, blah, blah, everyone knows it is ALL the QB, da da da QB, It is ONLY QB, he ignored QB... Nix' plan was to build a very good defense before spending much on the offense (kind of like both Seattle and SF did). It can reasonably be argued that he should have tried to build the offense first - main piece of which is QB, but that was NOT his plan. He felt that building a good defense would be the quickest road to competitiveness and a possible playoff spot. To characterize that he was so blind that he didn't see that Ryan Fitzpatrick was not a long-term answer at QB is off base, in my opinion. The "big money" contract that they signed Fitz to was well less than 1/2 of what top-level QBs make and barely moderate for even average starting QBs. From my vantage point, they always viewed Fitz as a care-taker until they had the D in place and started investing in the offense. Regarding Russell Wilson and Kaepernick, they went in the 2nd and 3rd rounds because no NFL team in need of a QB viewed them as a sure enough prospect to pick in round 1. Rest assured that there was nearly as much luck in those selections as there was spectacular scouting, because if either team knew that either was destined to be great, they'd have been picked in round 1. BTW, while I think both are good QBs, they both benefit from very very good defenses and running games. Kaepernick also has THREE very good receiving options in Crabtree, Vernon Davis and Boldin. The Bills WISH they had one receiving option as good as any of them.

I have more confidence in Marrone than many here and I don't really think that Hacket did a bad job with a rookie QB and mostly rookie WRs, but losing Pettine will be a big blow (IMHO) and while I would rather not see a candidate from outside come in and change things, I don't see anyone on the current staff capable of running the D. To someone else's point, the players in most cases are more important than the coaches, but you can see that the defense improved under Pettine compared to the abysmal effort by mostly the same players under the previous coach.

It isn't that I find fault with all coaches. It is that any qualified candidates have been snatched up already for other jobs. It is VERY unfortunate that this is happening so late in the off-season. Further, I think any import DC will want to change schemes and other coaches on the staff - a big step back. I am a firm believer that players are more important than coaches (for the most part), but I'd rather see them lose Jairus Byrd than Pettine (and I really want them to keep Byrd). I wonder, would they consider Greg Schiano? I don't know that he is really qualified for the job, but he did do a great job as HC at Rutgers and I thought he was starting to turn Tampa around after they got rid of Josh Freeman. They certainly finished strong.

Well, if your right, then there is only the MAJOR hurdle of Phillips and Ralph Wilson hating each other...

I don't think Phillips is coming back to Buffalo, but if he were to, I am not seeing where they have the players to play that scheme. While Dareus is a big guy, he is more of a penetrating DT than a stack the point NT. Kyle Williams is not a 3-4 NT. If they re-sign Carrington, he and Branch might be adequate DEs, but pushing Mario Williams to OLB is not his optimal position (IMHO). Where will the pass rush come from? Possibly Hughes can play 3-4 OLB and have another good season... The biggest problem with this, in my opinion, is that the players have to learn yet another new scheme complete with the ugly learning curve that comes with that. Pencil in a bottom 1/3rd defense again next year. He undoubtedly is familiar with those schemes, but can he coach them? While I acknowledge that player personnel certainly has a lot to do with a team's/coaches success, his track record is less than inspiring as a DC. He has been fired twice as DC in very short stints each time. If NFL teams thought much of him, what was he doing coaching DBs at Southern University recently?

DISASTER I am trying to stay positive and I think Marrone did a decent job, but who the heck is going to coach the defense?

Even if Phillips were to be willing to come back after he sued the Bills, he'd want to change the base scheme to his favored 3-4 and the team would be back in the situation of not having the right players for the chosen scheme. I acknowledge that Phillips has almost always produced good defenses, but I can't see how changing coaches, schemes and players again is anything but a big step backwards.

Correct, it is Pepper Johnson- former great player. Jim Haslett was a great player, too, but has not really stood out as a DC in the NFL. If Bill Belichick thought he was a good coach, he'd have been NE's DC by now.

Here is Henderson's coaching resume (courtesy of Wikipedia). You tell me if that sounds like a good candidate: Henderson first joined the Jets during the 2004 NFL season.[1] In 2005, the Jets had a second-ranked defense against the pass, but a 32nd-ranked defense against the run, which undoubtedly was one of the factors leading to the team's disappointing 4-12 record (in addition to Chad Pennington and Curtis Martin being absent for most of the season due to injury). Henderson was not kept on after head coach Herman Edwards was replaced by Eric Mangini following the season. Henderson soon accepted the defensive coordinator position for the Detroit Lionsand new head coach, Rod Marinelli. The Lions went 3-13 in 2006 and finished the season ranked 27th out of 32 in total defense. Henderson was fired from his position on January 2, 2007. In 2010, he was hired by the Arizona Cardinals as a defensive backs coach.[2] Henderson coached at Southern University in 2011 and was named the Defensive Backs coach at Syracuse University in 2012.[3] He was hired by the Buffalo Bills in 2013 to coach the defensive backs.[4]

A talented pass catching TE should be a high priority, but I am not totally sold on Ebron at this point, especially not at #9. I tend to think a great WR prospect like Sammy Watkins or even Marquise Lee would help as much or more. Still, I'd be very intrigued by the top OT candidates... LB would be high on my list, but I don't know if there is really a great one worth picking that high. For those calling CJ Mosley a "thumper" run defender, he is listed as being smaller than Kiko...

Well this would truly suck. No good candidates on the current staff. No top candidates that are currently "on the street" AND any outsider is going to set the D back by changing schemes and coaches again. What a nightmare.

Will he bring Tom Brady? Brady, not the defense, is why NE has been competitive in the last 5 years.

What has Pepper Johnson ever done to deserve to be considered as a candidate to come in and be DC? He was a good player, yes. However, NE passed him over when they had an opening at DC - I think that the Pats know coaches... Besides, anyone coming in from the outside would likely change the scheme and shake up the other assistant coaches - the LAST thing the team needs is more turnover in coaching and schemes. I acknowledge that there isn't a viable DC on the current staff, but bringing someone in from the outside is another step back for this beleaguered franchise.

Jones is pretty old - he will be 30 in March. Veldheer has starting experience at OT, but given that, likely will command a good bit of $.

The Broncos' OC just removed himself from consideration. This isn't setting up nicely for the Bills at all. I would hate to see them lose Pettine. Not sure there are competent replacements available at this time, let alone anyone that could do as well as he did last year.

I don't disagree with you. I did say that in many organizations the coaches have input. That they don't have final say in every organization is true. FWIW, i understand and agree with your points about "what kind of player" are the scouts looking for?

This is a truly shameful thread. I am as envious and hateful of Brady's success as any Bills fan, but he is great - perhaps the best of all time. Also, did folks notice that without Gronk, Hernandez and many experienced WRs (heck, a receiving crew similar to what the Bills had this year), that he struggled more than usual? In my opinion, this suggests that the quality of receivers a QB has at least affects the QB's productivity. Many here don't seem to want to acknowledge that EJ Manuel was young, inexperienced, had lots of missed practice time and had a very young (and currently) pedestrian receiving corp. Give EJ a full season and Colin Kaepernick's receiving options, OL and RB and maybe, just maybe, his stats would be better.

This might be the ultimate TwoBillsDrive/StadiumWall BS. First, too many here don't understand how much of a crap-shoot the draft is - even in the top 10. Whitner wasn't a great pick, but by no means was he anything close to a bust. The first round, and top 10 specifically, are where you HOPE to find a very good to excellent player. That doesn't mean that a Pro-Bowl player is a given. I think Whitner is good to very good. He has holes in his game and thinks he is better than he is, but that describes 95% of the players in the NFL. Is it a shame that the Bills selected him above Haloti Ngata? Yes, for sure. However, you can play that game with every team in every round of most every draft. There are always picks that, in hindsight, would have been better than the guy that team A picked. The draft is an inexact art/science. There are far more variables involved than going to website X and looking at their ranking of players then declaring that they are right. I am 100% confident that with 32 teams there are also 32 unique top 32 player lists.

In many organizations scouting and player personnel decisions are made by the GM and scouts. The coaches have input, but nothing close to final say.

And so could every other team. Pete Carroll recently said that he was "talked into" drafting Wilson in the 3rd. Yes, it looks like Kaepernick and Wilson are going to be good NFL QBs, but yet every team passed on Kaepernick once and on Wilson twice. It was NOT a no-brainer.