hondo in seattle

I think Thurman is in the public eye as much as he wants to be. I think the media, and posters to this board, talk about Rob more often because he's more interesting. Rob's got a bigger personality, he's Rex's brother (with shades of nepotism creeping into the picture), he's got a poorly defined job, and he's new to Buffalo. Thurman has been very clear: he's got the same role this year that he had last year and I believe him. Rob's a special projects guy. And from the Ryan family perspective, this may make a lot of sense. Rob's probably hoping to be a DC somewhere else next year. So it would be disruptive to take DC responsibilities away from Thurman this year only to give them back last year. It's better to put Rob into a special projects role where he won't be missed if he gets a DC offer.

Forget Gugny, I can't wait to be the fan of a winning team!

John Wooden is one of the greatest coaches of all time in any sport. We should remember, though, that it took him something like 16 years before he won his first NCAA championship. Then he made it a habit of winning championships. It can take a while before a coach hits his peak and gets his program where he really wants it. Vince Lombardi may be the best NFL coach of all time. He deserves to have his name on the Lombardi trophy. But I have to go with John Madden. Vince was more about good leadership and execution than he was about X's and O's. I suspect Madden has a better grasp of the complexities of the modern game than Lombardi would have if still alive. And Madden was no slouch as a coach: 763 win percentage over a 10 year HC career - higher than Lombardi or Belichick. Only Guy Chamberlain from the 1920s won a higher percentage of games as a NFL head coach.

Chilly, great post! I love when posters support their arguments with actual facts!

I've advocated for undocumented aliens and rational immigration reform. But I've never illegally crossed any borders myself.

He's got some skills. He certainly has commitment. He's got good coaches. Let's hope that all adds up to a great year. "A long-ball guy. I can’t throw across the middle..." Clearly he's utterly unaware of what we're writing about him.

Now that you've made fun of fat people, are there any other groups you want to malign? I just don't get why some people need to make personal attacks.

Let's for the sake of argument assume that Rex is an intelligent man. As such, I'm sure he observed problems with his D last year and identified some changes he needed to make. So... * with DW's cooperation, he made some modifications to the defensive roster; * he made some changes to the coaching staff; * he's making some schematic changes; * he's probably making some other changes to how he approaches the season. I don't think Rex is an idiot and I don't think any of these changes are whimsical. Whether he's assessed the actual ailments and the right cures remains to be seen but I doubt if there's anything haphazard about what Rex is doing. I suspect Ed Reed was brought in for more than his positional expertise. My guess is that Rex hopes Reed helps with earning credibility for the whole defensive coaching staff, gaining player buy-in, improving player communication and effort, etc.

I've always wondered about this. Players often say they practice hard with Rex but still have fun. Even if Rex is a "Player's Coach," what about the coordinators and positions coaches? If they're disciplinarians, it doesn't matter much if Rex is a little lax.

I'm not sure what people expected. So Lee didn't mention Fitz. Why would he? It was a short interview and what interesting story could he tell about a QB that didn't improve much under his tutelage? Do any QB coaches actually improve the play of every QB they coach? And I can't blame for Lee being positive. He is a Bills employee after all. And I would guess it's more fun as a QB coach to work with three moldable guys rather than working with some crusty old vets set in their ways. Lee did caveat his enthusiasm more than once, commenting the QBs are still in shorts.

His inability to track the ball early in his career was really frustrating. How many long plays and TDs did he give up despite having near-perfect position? Eventually, though, he became a solid CB. I think some fans probably under-appreciated him the past few years because they couldn't forget some of his mistakes but I was sad to see him go. He'd be an awesome backup to Gilmore and Darby.

After 16 years of not making the playoffs, I have little trouble not getting excited during the off-season. I'm glad to hear good things about TT but I hear/read good things virtually every off-season. So this year I'm letting go of all my hopes and fears. Though I do think it would be reasonable to expect Tyrod to take a step forward this year: 2nd year as a starter; first year going into training camp as a starter; 2nd year in a new system; 2nd year with a new OC... You would expect the learning curve to keep trending upwards.

All three of these guys were injured for part of the 2015 season so maybe it's a fair ranking given concerns of fragility. If Sammy fully heals before the season and stays healthy, and.... If Shady stays healthy this year, and... If TT takes a step forward in his second year as a starter, and stays healthy, and... If the offensive line can open holes for Shady and protect TT. Our triplets will have a very productive year.

The standing Buffalo looks like lunch! It's just grazing in the pasture waiting for someone to slaughter it and turn it into bison burgers. I'm 57 and prefer the charging logo. The charging Buffalo looks like it wants to fight.

I'm in the Will-the-Real-Rex-Ryan-Please-Stand-Up club. Is Rex the buffoon he sometimes appears to be? Or a defensive mastermind who just had a bad year? And my uncertainty doesn't stop there. TT showed promise last year. Will take a step this year and become a franchise QB who can win a game with his arm? Or will be just the latest QB to tease us only to leave us disappointed? Neither 10-6 nor 6-10 would surprise me. I'm neither hopeful nor prematurely dejected. Only curious.

It's great if your backup gets you to .500. But each year in the NFL, starting QBs win 256 games and lose 256 games. I'm not sure it's realistic to expect your backup to keep pace with that. More or less by definition, .500 is what an average starter goes.

Valid point. But I also think we're quick to judge a coach a bad hire and that makes coaches reluctant to work for us. If we fired Rex after two years it tells prospective coaches that they have a 2 year leash. Sometimes I wonder about DJ. I think maybe he was an OC away from being a decent head coach. We had a good DC and ST coach and those units were performing reasonably well. We just needed more talent on the offensive side and a good OC to put that unit together. But, as per usual, instead of fixing what's broke we threw the baby out with the bath water and started over from scratch.

After reading this thread, I told the wife I was going to give her an Anova for Xmas so she could start doing sous vide. She wasn't happy.

I would take what Brandon says about analytics with a grain of salt. TG mentioned that 6 teams refused to let him speak to their analytics guys. Secrecy is the rule right now.

Cookie was quite a character. I wish a current Bill had the cojones to go to the Pats bench and say, "Which one of you f*ckers are next?!?!" And the size/talent to make the threat frightening. James is another almost-forgotten Bills hero.

To me, the bottom boundary of success would be making the playoffs. More ideally, we would win the Super Bowl. If the past 16 years is any indicator, our chances of a successful season are very small. Rex getting fired is not a success. We've fired lots of coaches since Levy retired. Where's that got us?

For those under-appreciating Cookie, he averaged 4.5 yards per carry for the Bills. And, admittedly, his best years may have been in Canada before joining the NFL. Thurman averaged 4.2 yards per carry in his Bills career. Cookie was a beast: 6'3", 250 lbs, and mean. In 1962, he rushed for 1000+ yards (in a 14 games season) at 5.1 yards per pop, ran for 13 TD, caught 2 TD passes, and kicked 8 FGs, and was named the AFL MVP. Cookie led the AFL in rushing 2 of the 3 years he played for the Bills. There's all sorts of great stories and comments about Cookie, for example: “Whoever’d run up, he’d run at him and then run over him,” his former Bills teammate Booker Edgerson, a defensive back, told Jeff Miller in “Going Long,” a history of the A.F.L. “A lot of guys said, ‘Why don’t you sidestep and run around?’ He said: ‘I want to teach them a lesson. If I run over ’em, they won’t come up anymore.’ ” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/sports/11gilchrist.html?_r=1 The Bills had to win to host the AFL Championship game six days later. The atmosphere was tense, the room quiet. "Cookie stood up," Maguire recalled, "and said 'I'm going to tell you something. If we don't win this game, I'm going to beat the s--- out of everybody in this locker room.' " Just then, Bills head coach Lou Saban and assistants Joe Collier, Jerry Smith and John Mazur unwittingly walked into their star fullback's escalating fury. Maguire continued: "Cookie pointed and said, 'And I'm going to start with you, Coach. I'm going to kick your ass first.' I just sat back in my locker. I knew he meant it." On the first play of the game, Gilchrist took a handoff from Jack Kemp and trucked helpless Patriots safety Chuck Shonta. [Cookie knocked Shonta unconcious]. "Cookie ran right over his ass," said Maguire, the Bills' popular linebacker and punter. "Then he went up to Bob Dee, who was the defensive end, and says 'You're next.' Kemp came over the sideline and said 'We've got to get him out of there. He's going to kill somebody.' " [According to other unsanitized versions of the story, Cookie went the Pats bench and shouted, "Which one of you f*ckers are next?!?!"] http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/24656/cookie-gilchrist-rumbled-right-until-the-end

I hate to say it about a killer, but I agree with K-9. OJ was at another level and you had a sense of wonderment when you watched up at his peak.

There's definitely something to this.

There are facts and there are theories. Facts say kickers score a lot of points. That can't be argued. But the theory that kickers are worth of 2nd round draft choice is a bad one. There's a world of difference between a 1st round QB and a UDFA QB. That's why so many QBs get drafted early. There's not a world of difference between a the first kickers drafted and the ones not drafted. That's why very few kickers get drafted early. Kicking the ball is not a comparatively rare skill. Throwing the ball in a game time situation is a rare skill.