OldTimer1960

One guy that I'd like to see back from Gailey's staff is Joe D'Allisandris (sp?). I thought that he did a very good job with the OL, especially considering how many injuries they dealt with.

I concur. The gamble that the Bills took on (I have already forgotten his name) the DL/OL that was over 400 lbs from the lowest level of competition looked like a better bet at the time. The guy was a real athlete for someone his size and had at least shown that he would try to get in shape. He didn't work out. The Burfict story is not that uncommon, other than it did seem to workout this time (that IS uncommon).

Not sure I understand your post. Are you saying: 1. Tim Graham actually knows who the best coaches in the NFL are and that it is THAT black and white? 2. It was NOT Andy Reid's fault that he moved his OL coach to DC and that the Defense then struggled? 3. Lovie Smith was not culpable for the Bears' offensive short-comings? 4. Supposedly great coaches Mike Tomlin and Rex Ryan didn't get their teams to the playoffs this year? C'mon, I'd take Chan over Rex. Which QB do you think had better talent: Sanchez or Fitz? I'd say Sanchez, but he regressed significantly under Ryan. Tomlin (like most coaches) couldn't get his beat-up Steelers team to the playoffs after they lost several defensive players and QB Ben Roethlisberger... My point isn't to deride your opinion, only to say that "coaching evaluation" is a lot less black and white than many here want to believe. You can put a great CEO in charge of a company that makes poor quality products (or products that nobody wants) and they will fail or it will take a long time to turn that around. The Bills have dug a deep hole to climb out of, but I firmly believe that there is MUCH more talent on the roster now than there was 3 years ago. I think a good, innovated defensive coaching staff could turn the Bills into a top 15 defense in one offseason without any big additions. A little better LB group and the improvement could be more. On "O", I think the BIG challenge is to find a good QB - not as simple as MANY want to believe. BTW, Bill Bellichick's record was under .500 as a HC before NE hired him.

OMG, man! You are holding the Bills responsible because: 1. their rookie CB had ups and downs (Gilmore)? Look around and tell me how many rookies DON'T struggle sometimes. 2. Their 3rd round pick from 3 years ago is "only" a good kick blocker and good/not great run defender who has a knack for knocking down passes. 3. Marcel Dareus' play "dropped off" (in your opinion) after his brother died and Kyle WIlliams played hurt next to him much of the year. 4. Torrell Troup hurt his back. How was the staff to know that might happen? 5. Bradham only started for 4-5 games? How many 3rd rounders this year started more? 6. Your going to hang the team for 4th, 5th 6th and 7th rounders not starting/panning out? Look around at the rest of the league and tell me what the success rate with those rounds is (not high at all). It isn't enough to just cherry pick a small hand full of low-round picks that have succeeded. That is definitely not the norm. The money picks are rounds 1 and 2 and some of the Bills' street free agent pickups (Urbick, Pears, Kyle Moore...) are positives. I'll give you that Aaron Williams doesn't look like he is going to pan out (#2 pick in 2011), but show me a team that hits all of their top 2 picks.

ing experience, including the past four as the Broncos offensive coordinator. Last season, his reputation around the NFL soared as a result of his handling of the transition from Kyle Orton to Tim Tebow. He completely overhauled his scheme in the middle of the season to accommodate Tebow's specific skill set. The Broncos finished the season with the NFL's No. 1 rushing attack. This season, he has smoothly transitioned his offense to suit Peyton Manning. They are currently ranked fourth in passing. Those rankings highlight McCoy's flexibility and willingness to adapt his scheme to his personnel. If the man can win a division title, and win a playoff game against the Steelers with Tim Tebow at QB.... Or was it the combination of McCoy as OC, John Fox as HC with Jack Del Rio as DC? Still, Tim Tebow? http://www.nfl.com/n...oach-candidates from another thread... http://profootballta...e-a-head-coach/ Or maybe it was the extremely good defense that Denver had/has that allowed them to win with Tebow? I think Pittsburgh might've scored enough to beat Denver if the Broncos' D wasn't outstanding... IMHO, the next head coach must possess the following characteristics: 1. He must be a good leader. Not necessarily "fiery" or "demonstrative", but the players must know who is in charge and want to follow him. 2. He must be able to identify and bring in a top-quality assistant coaching staff. IMHO, Gailey's inability to bring in a quality DC doomed him. I admit that I thought that Dave Wannestadt would succeed, but I believe that the league's offenses have passed his vanilla schemes by. It is very hard for me to believe that a team with Mario Williams, Marcel Dareus, Kyle Williams, an improving Alex Carrington and others could be as bad on D as the 2012 Bills were...

I think the two most important qualities the new coach has to have are: 1. leadership - it needs to be clear that he is in charge and that he can command the respect of his players. 2. Can attract a quality assistant coaching staff - This is part ability to identify good coaches and part having the right connections to get those coaches.

The Browns were 5-11 in his last season in Cleveland (after that 3-1 start) and his overall record in Cleveland was 36-44 (.450 winning percentage). The point wasn't so much that Bellichick was a bad coach in Cleveland, but rather that a great coach could have a losing record in a previous stint and do (much) better in a different situation.

It seems that many here will be unhappy with whomever the Bills hire unless it is Bill Parcells, Jon Gruden, Don Shula or Vince Lombardi (yes, I know he is dead). Look at the teams that have been good over the past few years and where their coaches came from: 1. New England - Bellicheck bombed in Cleveland and NOBODY here would have been worried when the Pats hired him. He might be the best coach in the league, but maybe it is mostly Tom Brady???? 2. Baltimore - John Harbaugh was not a "big name" hire, but he has kept them competitive. Harbaugh was a ST coach for 9 years, then was a DB coach for one year before the Ravens hired him. 3. Pittsburgh - They missed the playoffs this year and might be aging, but they have been good for a long time. Mike Tomlin was an aggressive assistant, not a huge name Jimmy Johnson type. Tomlin was DB coach in Tampa where they had a good defense, then was DC in Minnesota when they led the league in D against the run, but were last against the pass. He was a young "hot-name". 4. Houston - Gary Kubiak - former backup QB and OC under Shanahan. Has done a pretty good job, but was in a bit of trouble until Wade Philips turned his defense into a monster. May be in trouble again if Houston's fade continues. 5. Indy - Didn't matter who was the coach when Peyton Manning was there. Bruce Arians is a hot name now, but I'd be leery of him - did he just get lucky that Andrew Luck played very well and the team was ultra-motivated to do well for Chuck Pagano? 6. Giants - Tom Coughlin - boring and old, but has done a great job keeping the Giants competitive for years. I think he came from Boston College which was no college football power. 7. Philly - Andy Reid - Eagles were always challengers until the last 2 years. I think he is a good coach, but there are questions about his player evaluation skills. 8. Green Bay - Long-time assistant who spent time "developing" immortals like Rich Gannon, Elvis Grbac, Steve Bono and Aaron Brooks. The year before GB hired him, he was SF's OC and they finished last in the NFL in points scored and yards gained. He is doing a great job in GB, though - is it mostly his QB? 9. SF - Jim Harbaugh - he was a hot name after doing well at Univ SD and Stanford. I've probably missed one or two good teams, but the point is that a lot of these guys were not considered "great hires"/"saviors" when they were hired. Their backgrounds are varied. As the Bills go into their coaching search, keep the different backgrounds here in mind and try to maintain an open mind.

Thank you for a little ray of positiveness in this otherwise overwhelmingly negative thread. I believe that many on here will think whomever they hire will be "bottom of the barrel" unless it is Don Shula, Bill Parcells or Jon Gurden.

Oh no, they aren't interviewing Vince Lombardi!!!!

Are you suggesting they hire Christ as the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator? I guess he could heal the players faster...

While the results were not what we all wanted, Coach Gailey always took responsibility for his team's failures. He always tried to publicly protect his players from criticism, even when they regularly let him down. One of the biggest criticisms of Coach Gailey was his allegiance to Ryan Fitzpatrick as QB. I suspect that privately, the coach knew that Ryan was a good try-hard QB that does not quite have the physical tools to be a good starting NFL QB, however he never threw Fitz under the bus to the media. Gailey knew that his ship was sinking with Fitz, but he continued to support him as he really didn't have any better option. One can argue that the Bills should have drafted Andy Dalton or Russell WIlson and, in hind-sight, you'd be right, but they were far from being considered "sure-things". Other than those two, I really don't see other top QBs that they could have gotten to replace Fitz (of course, a small trade up would have netted them Colin Kaepernick, but again he was no sure thing and you always have to find a partner to trade up with). I have no real quarrel with the Bills' recent strategy of trying to build a strong D and good OL and then fill in with a better QB, once those areas had jelled. The big failing seems to be that even with what looks on paper like very good defensive talent, they defense was again putrid. I think this is what really cost Coach Gailey his job. I know that Dave Wannestadt was the DC, but Gailey couldn't be kept and allowed to hire a 3rd DC after George Edwards and Wannestadt had failed and it appears that the NFL has changed and Dave Wannestadt didn't adjust. There is just absolutely no way that the defense with Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus, Mario Williams and a young improving Alex Carrington on DL should be anywhere near as bad against the run as they were. On offense, it is very hard for me to criticize Gailey much, given the bare cupboard he was working with. He had CJ Spiller, Fred Jackson and Stevie Johnson and a pretty good OL (until injuries decimated them again). The QB and number 2 and 3 WRs were among the worst starters in the NFL at their respective positions and their TE was, at best, an average NFL starter. The only quibble I can even point to was the reluctance to get CJ Spiller the ball more often over the past 2 seasons. At any rate, it is exciting to speculate on who will be the next head coach and, once again, hope for improvement. Just wanted to post one reasonably positive view of Coach Gailey. I am sure that there will be plenty of negative ones...

This is a complete joke.

The The refs aren't playing defense, then again neither are the Bills.

They could have saved a lot of travel money. They didn't show up any way. There is NO WAY Gailey can return next year. This team has completely quit. How sad.

Run for the bus!!!!!!

This looks like a preseason game, at least on the Bills' side. They are awful. I doubt they could win half their games even if they played in the MAC conference.

Wanny HAS to go after this season. There is enough talent on this defense to play MUCH better than they have this season.

Fitz is incredibly unqualified to be a starting QB in the NFL. They have no chance to make it to .500 (even) with him as their QB. I know that they lack weapons at WR and TE and that the OL has had a lot of injuries, but Fitz couldn't have lead the Super Bowl Steelers team to a .500 record. It doesn't matter who else they can get to be their QB next year, it CANNOT be Fitz.

Clearly they have not shown measurable improvement against a half decent offense. This team has clearly quit and for that Chan and his staff MUST go.

I want to like Fitz, I really do. He is bright and tries hard. He shows courage on the field and clearly cares. HOWEVER, he is just not good enough to be a starting QB in the NFL. He does not have enough physical talent to lead a team with the 85 Bears defeanse to the playoffs. I have withheld judgement because the WR and TE crew are not very good at all, but let's face it - Fitz is holding this team back. Even though this is a very weak year to draft a QB, there is NO reason that they can't find a much better candidate to play QB than Fitz. To me, Fitz is Frank Reich. Not good enough to be a starting QB, but smart enough with just enough physical skills to be a good backup.

The first interference penalty was horrible, but what on earth was Gilmore supposed to do on the second one? New play: WR runs directly into DB and QB throws it. Automatic first down every time. The WR initiated that contact and it should have been offensive PI. Not that it will matter by the end of the day...

Well, another wasted Sunday afternoon. Only interesting question will be if NE can break 60.

Game over already. Fitz is terrible. How bad of shape could Doug Flutie be in. Even at 50, Flutie would be better.

If it is a basketball team with a dominant center and no outside shooting capability, the defense plays a sagging zone and dares the opponent to beat them from the outside. It is the same thing here. The defense knows that Fitz and this dismal receiving corp can't hurt them passing, so they take away the only thing that the Bills could do to beat them (run game).